Eindhoven Municipality and North-Brabant province will be stopping the OV-pilot ‘Bravoflex’ at the end of this year.
The Bravoflex experiment was meant to supplement the existing network of public transport. Minibuses could be requested on demand. Travellers would be picked up at busstop and dropped-off at a stop of choice.
In 2019 fewer people were using the service than originally anticipated by the Municipality and transport company, Hermes. The Municipality announced the number of users in November 2019 was 40. Three months later, in February 2020 the number of users was 60.
Costs
The cost of the project outweighs the result. Due to the system working on personal demand, it seems difficult to coordinate transporting many people per ride. This is the reason the parties involved decided to put an end to the project.
Besides Eindhoven, Bravoflex is also available in Veldhoven and Waalre. The project will also be discontinued in these municipalities.
Alternative
An investigation is being done to the integration of WMO-transport systems. This is a network of regional taxi’s often used by the elderly and disabled.
Critique
The City Council has often been critical of Bravoflex in the past. Many differing factions were of the opinion that the flexible bus service resulted in unfair competition. Hermes disregarded the critique.
Source: Studio040
Translator: Ame Harris
