An election campaign by Flemish socialist Vooruit party which distributed flyers in the form of train tickets has led Belgium's public train operator SNCB to ask that political parties refrain from such initiatives to avoid confusion on its services.
Several passengers confused the flyers distributed by Vooruit for real train tickets, resulting in SNCB staff having to explain to passengers that the "ticket" they showed was not valid and they had to buy a proper one.
"I would certainly like to apologise if this caused confusion and created additional work for conductors," said Joris Vandenbroucke, Vooruit leader in the Federal Parliament.
He stressed that this was "absolutely" not the intention and added that no one asked him whether it was a real train ticket. "We are convinced that it is very clear that this is not a real ticket."
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Pointing to the Vooruit logo on the front and the back of the flyer, Vandenbroucke argued that it seemed clear enough that the tickets were not real. "The front is indeed in the shape of a train ticket but there is a photo of myself on the back, an explanation of our proposal and the legally required statement that this is election printing."
The initiative aimed to highlight a party proposal to introduce an affordable combination ticket for train, tram, bus and metro. The '€8' on the flyer refers to the party's concrete proposal for the daily price of such tickets.
SNCB has contacted the party and requested that all political parties avoid campaigns that use potentially confusing electoral advertising. "That way, there is no confusion in the minds of our customers and our train conductors are not faced with potentially difficult situations."
