{"id":1935,"date":"2020-12-23T15:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T15:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/?p=1331775"},"modified":"2020-12-23T15:00:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T15:00:50","slug":"brussels-to-give-under-25s-free-public-transport-from-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=1935","title":{"rendered":"Brussels to give under-25s free public transport from next year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article was originally published by Christopher Carey<\/a> on <\/span>Cities Today<\/span><\/a>, the leading news platform on urban mobility and innovation, reaching an international audience of city leaders. For the latest updates follow Cities Today on <\/span>Twitter<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Facebook<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Instagram<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>YouTube<\/span><\/a>, or sign up for Cities Today News.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Brussels\u2019 public transport operator, The Brussels Intercommunal Transport Company (STIB)<\/a>, has announced that from September 2021, its services will be free of charge for travelers under the age of 25.<\/p>\n

The transit company\u2019s budget has been increased by over \u20ac61 million (US$72.5 million) \u2013 to \u20ac945 million \u2013 for 2021, which has allowed it to absorb the impact on revenue.<\/p>\n

Rudi Vervoort, Minister-President of the <\/span>Brussels Capital Region<\/a>, said: \u201cI am delighted that we have reached a budgetary agreement in principle allowing free STIB for our young people in 2021, access to public transport for the greater number is essential and its implementation is underway.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the local government\u2019s initial plans, free public transport for those over 65 was also due to be introduced but funding constraints meant both schemes could not be rolled out simultaneously.<\/p>\n

On top of these changes, authorities in Brussels are planning additional investments in the public transport network that will improve the frequency of buses and increase network capacity.<\/p>\n

It will also upgrade its bus fleet from diesel to electric and hybrid vehicles, and expand its area of operation and routes over the coming years.<\/p>\n

In late October, STIB started construction on an expansion of its metro with a \u20ac174.95 million project that will connect the Forest and Evere districts of the Belgian capital by the end of 2030 \u2013 running through the city center.<\/p>\n

The project also includes a new metro station and the expansion of the Lemonnier tram station.<\/p>\n

Air quality<\/h2>\n

The increased investment in public transport \u2013 at a time when transit authorities globally are tightening their belts \u2013 comes as Brussels\u2019 record on air quality has been under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

In October, the city teamed up<\/a> <\/span>with Bloomberg Philanthropies to launch the Brussels Clean Air Partnership,<\/a> bringing together government, universities, local research centers, and NGOs to deliver a science-based, coordinated approach to curb air pollution throughout the Brussels-Capital Region. The initiative will use low-cost technologies to monitor air pollution and fill in data gaps in ground-level local pollution data.<\/p>\n

Air pollution claims an estimated 9,000 lives every year in Belgium and over 400,000 premature deaths in Europe annually, according to the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) report.<\/a><\/p>\n

In June 2019, The EU\u2019s top court ruled<\/a> that Brussels could no longer rely on its past practice of averaging air pollution measures across the city \u2013 something environmental groups said glossed over the scale of pollution at key sites, such as the EU district.<\/p>\n

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SHIFT<\/a> is brought to you by Polestar. It\u2019s time to accelerate the shift to sustainable mobility. That is why Polestar combines electric driving with cutting-edge design and thrilling performance.<\/span><\/i> Find out how<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Published December 23, 2020 \u2014 15:00 UTC <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published by Christopher Carey on Cities Today, the leading news platform on urban mobility and innovation, reaching an international audience of city leaders. For the latest updates follow Cities…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}