The advocacy group Mauto Defence, which champions the rights of motorists and motorcyclists, is urging Flemish and Walloon public transport companies operating in Brussels to respect bilingual language regulations by displaying their bus destinations in both French and Dutch.
Several passengers have complained that De Lijn, the Flemish public transport company, only displays its bus destinations in Dutch within Brussels, disregarding the linguistic laws that mandate bilingualism in the capital. For example, the bus heading to “La Roue” metro station in Anderlecht reads “Metro Anderlecht – Het Rad” without the French equivalent.
Mauto Defence has consulted the Permanent Commission for Language Control, which has sided with their complaint, stating that "signage in the region must alternate between French and Dutch."
Contacted by the Commission, De Lijn explained that its drivers have to manually change the display language, leading to frequent oversights. They also stated that the language switching system cannot be automated at present.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Mauto Defence expressed surprise at this response, pointing out that the STIB/MIVB buses manage to provide terminus information in both languages without requiring manual intervention. The organisation calls on public transport companies to make greater efforts to comply with the law.
Although the complaint filed with the language control commission specifically targets De Lijn, Mauto Defence observes that Walloon transport operator TEC's buses are also not consistently bilingual in Brussels.
In response, TEC, the Walloon public transport company, emphasised its efforts to meet this requirement on Wednesday.
"Our bus stop information is bilingual when the stops are located in bilingual regions, including in municipalities with language facilities," clarified TEC. "The same goes for schedules available on our website and timetable posters at stops, and our destination signs are bilingual when the bus’s destination is in a bilingual region."
This story was updated with comments with TEC.
