Theme image — © Fred Debrock
At the De Lijn depot in Gentbrugge, a spontaneous action broke out among staff on Saturday morning, after several cases of aggression on Friday. This was reported by union secretary Bart Reyns of ACV Public Services. He expects that there will be virtually no trams and buses in the city of Ghent on Saturday.
Saturday April 6, 2024 at 9:35 AM
A tram driver and two line inspectors were victims of a first case of aggression on Friday. A 30-year-old man was behaving suspiciously and troublesomely at a bus stop in Veldstraat, prompting several people to inform a De Lijn inspector. During a subsequent scuffle with the tram driver and the inspectors, the man turned out to be in possession of an alarm pistol, which, according to the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office, looked like he was going to lash out with it.
The inspector and some bystanders then pushed the man to the ground. The controller of De Lijn was injured. The police were called and the man was arrested. The public prosecutor’s office confirms that the suspect is being interrogated today.
Not much later on Friday evening, two inspectors also received blows from travelers without a ticket at Ghent South.
Increasing number of reports
“The staff had been walking on their toes for weeks,” says Reyns. “Spontaneous actions have been averted several times. Both incidents of aggression yesterday were too much.” According to the trade unionist, there has been a notable increase in the number of reports of aggression in the city for some time now. This includes fights between travelers, reports of verbal aggression, but also more and more physical aggression against staff.
An appointment to meet with Ghent mayor Mathias De Clercq, to see how the wave of aggression can be tackled, had already been planned. “A meeting about this was to take place on May 7, but the facts of last night made spontaneous action unavoidable,” the union said.
Major inconvenience
Reyns expects that there will be virtually no trams and buses running in Ghent on Saturday due to the action. It is not immediately clear how long the campaign will last.
Just this weekend, the sci-fi and fantasy fair FACTS will take place in Flanders Expo, which attracts thousands of visitors and is already causing a lot of crowds on The Loop. Now that the route of tram 1 between Flanders Expo and Gent-Sint-Pieters station is uncertain, the organization is deploying last-minute shuttle buses on that route. “The strike came as a big surprise to us on Saturday morning,” it said on social media. “We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed.”