Carte_RER_101023_Priorité_1_V3

Study on the Optimisation and Reinforcement of Public Transport Service in the Brussels RER Zone

The Stratec team was commissioned by the 4 Belgian public transport operators to optimize public transport service in the Brussels RER zone using an ad hoc evaluation tool for demand response to proposed improvements.

Location: Brussels Region and its periphery (RER zone)
Client: RER Operational Group
Date: 2023
Partners: SMA, Tractebel, Significance

Context and Objectives

Initiated in 2004, the Brussels RER project aims to strengthen suburban rail services to encourage modal shift from road to public transport (PT). While railway operational issues have been extensively studied, the comprehensive analysis of multimodal PT supply and demand (including road transport) remains limited. The responsibility for proposing a complete and coherent service across 126 municipalities and three Regions lies with the RER Operational Group, composed of the four main operators (SNCB, STIB, De Lijn, and TEC/OTW), who initiated this study.

The study pursues two main objectives: to propose effective and realistic improvements to the overall public transport service within the RER zone and to provide a modeling tool to evaluate demand response to these improvements. This mechanism will enable operators to bring a scientific perspective to discussions and to test new service proposals derived from the analyses.

Carte PM à l'origine enjeux

Methodology

The approach involved an in-depth analysis of mobility behaviours conducted by Stratec through in-depth qualitative interviews with commuters, a targeted literature review, and a large-scale stated preference (SP) survey (2,200 participants).

These data were then used to construct a synthetic population and a behaviour prediction model (a modal choice model whose utility functions are extracted from the SP survey), coupled with a multimodal transport model. This tool was then used to simulate various multimodal scenarios for 2025.

In parallel, the consortium supported the 4 operators in a co-creation process for an RER service development strategy. On this occasion, an ambitious RER bus plan was proposed to complement the RER train service.

Carte_RER_101023_Priorité_2_V3
Stratec_20-2

Contact

Des questions, un besoin spécifique ? Parlez dès maintenant à notre expert