Ghent (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – De Lijn was fined nearly €125,000 this year in Ghent’s low-emission zone, totalling €240,000. Alderman Filip Watteeuw criticised repeated violations; De Lijn plans full bus replacement by 2026.
As VRT News reported, De Lijn, the Flemish public transport company, was fined nearly €125,000 in the first half of this year. The fines were for buses that broke the rules of Ghent’s low-emission zone. The city imposes strict limits on vehicles that do not meet environmental standards.
Alderman Filip Watteeuw of the Green Party said he found the situation difficult to understand.
“De Lijn has had more than ten years to prepare, yet they still drive buses that are not allowed in the zone,”
Watteeuw said.
What is behind De Lijn’s €240K fines for Ghent LEZ violations?
The total fines for De Lijn in Ghent now add up to about €240,000. Between the end of June 2025 and now, the company paid an additional €115,000. Ghent has long worked to improve air quality and enforce emission standards.
“It’s incomprehensible that the transport company is letting money slip away like this, while we’re simply asking them to drive through the city with vehicles that don’t pollute,”
Watteeuw says.
According to officials, they don’t know the reason why De Lijn is committing so many more violations this year than last year. The company has not yet given an official response to explain why many buses still drive in Ghent’s low-emission zone without meeting the rules. Earlier this year, De Lijn said it plans to replace all buses that are not allowed in Ghent’s low-emission zone. The company aims to complete this by 2026.
Ghent announced its low-emission zone in late 2015 to improve air quality and reduce pollution in the city centre. The zone officially started on January 1, 2020, and only allows vehicles that meet strict environmental standards.
Older diesel and petrol cars, as well as buses that do not comply, are banned and can be fined if they enter the zone. Over the years, the city has increased enforcement and required public transport companies like De Lijn to update their fleets.
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