Improving access to the European quarter

Officials working in Brussels for the institutions of the European Union are experts at commuting.

Many of them make monthly trips to Strasbourg in addition to weekly flights between ‘home’ and Brussels. Then there is the daily commute in and out of Brussels, whose roads are becoming more congested as 360,000 people make the journey each day.

A new suburban railway system, the Réseau Express Régional (RER), is meant to ease the road congestion by making rail commuting faster and more convenient, but long delays in the project were announced this year. The whole €1.72 billion system is not expected to be up and running until 2016 at the earliest when upgraded tracks will fan out in a 30-kilometre radius from Brussels, with more frequent trains during peak commuting hours and easy links to existing public transport.

Service to the European quarter of Brussels is a significant part of the plan. The RER project will upgrade tracks and stations serving the east of Brussels to enable rail service directly from the European quarter to most Flemish commuter towns and Brussels airport, through a corridor that avoids the congested line running north-south through the centre of the city. The Schuman station is to be rebuilt and a tunnel will take the new line underneath the Avenue Cortenbergh. The work is to begin this autumn and the Watermael-Josaphat link is scheduled for completion in 2012.

While Brussels waits for the RER, EU institutions are seeking other ways to cut down on car traffic. One successful effort was the Eurobus, a partnership between the EU and local Brussels authorities to provide free transport for officials between EU buildings and to the airport.

In the meantime the Commission is offering to pay staff half the cost of a public transport pass for any employee who turns in his or her parking access card. The Commission’s ‘mobility policy’ aims to cut the proportion of officials who use private cars to 35% by 2009, from 44% at present.

Officials working in Brussels for the institutions of the European Union are experts at commuting.