Wallonia Scraps €12 TEC Pass in Fare Overhaul

Wallonia has unveiled a sweeping overhaul of fares on its LETEC public transport network that will abolish the popular €12-a-year annual pass and raise the cost of season tickets for several groups. The new price grid, presented on 1 October and due to take effect on 1 February 2027, marks a philosophical shift away from the near-free travel policy the region has pursued since 2021, as RTBF reported.

The decision has quickly become one of the most politically charged issues in the region, pitting the MR–Les Engagés governing coalition against opposition parties and student groups who argue the increases target young people already squeezed by rising higher-education fees.

What Is Changing

Under the new grid, annual Express passes priced at €12 for 18–24 year-olds, the over-65s, and BIM status holders — people with reduced mobility entitlement — will be scrapped. Replacement fares are substantially higher for some categories.

For Express network annual passes, riders aged 12–25 will pay €384 a year, up from €12, while the over-65s will pay €120 and BIM holders €60. On the Classic network, which excludes the faster Express lines, a 12–25 annual pass will cost €180 and a standard 26-plus pass €525, according to LETEC’s published fare grid.

Single and multi-trip tickets are unchanged, and free travel is preserved for children under six and for 6–11 year-olds on the Express network. The separate 12–17 and 18–24 age brackets are being merged into a single 12–25 category. The MOBIB travel card will rise to €10.

Some season tickets face increases of 20–25%, according to La Libre, which quoted LETEC arguing that the abolished €12 passes were an outlier and that several 2027 fares remain lower than their 2019 inflation-adjusted equivalents.

Why the Government Did It

LETEC says the change is the application of a decree adopted by the Walloon Parliament on 2 September 2026, and stems from a revised Public Service Contract signed with the regional government in June. Central to that contract is a requirement that the operator lift its “revenue coverage rate” from 10% to 14% — meaning passengers must cover more of the system’s cost while the region’s subsidy share falls from 90% to 86%.

Walloon Mobility Minister François Desquesnes defended the move before the regional parliament, arguing that the previous government’s cheap-fare policy had failed to deliver the ridership gains its advocates had promised.

“The choices of the previous government did not produce the increase in ridership that some had announced,” he said, adding that the region wanted “a financially sustainable system, a reliable, punctual and financially solid service, rather than a system displaying artificially low fares while letting the operator become impoverished and service quality degrade.”

Jean-Michel Soors, LETEC’s general administrator, put the case bluntly in a radio interview: “The traveller’s demand is not that it be free, it is to have a bus that comes and comes on time.”

The Politically Charged Response

The fare changes have drawn sharp criticism from the opposition and civil society, with L’Avenir reporting that the PS accused the government of breaking a promise that budget efforts would come “without consequences for citizens’ wallets.”

“The main target is young people, who are already facing a dizzying rise in enrolment fees,” the Socialist Party said, referring to the minerval increase in higher education. Ecolo called the increases “unbelievable and disheartening” and “an absolutely disastrous signal,” while the Ligue des Familles said it was “very worried,” particularly for parents of students.

The far-left PTB, which launched a petition against the changes on 2 October, framed the overhaul as a transfer of costs onto households. “This represents some €41 million to be found in the pockets of the workers of our region,” said PTB group leader Germain Mugemangango, who accused Desquesnes of mechanically triggering the increases through his revenue target. The party’s campaign literature contrasts the old €12 pass with the new €384 fare.

Pressure and a Possible Concession

Facing the backlash, Desquesnes has asked LETEC to design a dedicated student fare. In a statement reported by La Libre, he said the 2027 offer “must take these specific uses into account” and called on the operator to propose “a simple, attractive formula adapted to these journeys, inspired for example by SNCB’s Student Multi offer.”

Whether LETEC agrees, and at what price, remains unresolved — and the minister’s request has itself exposed strains inside the governing majority. By 4 October, L’Avenir reported a “cacophony” around the tariffs, with Les Engagés figure Benoît Lutgen described as “angry” and young party members trying to play down the increases.

Analysis: A Pivot With Political Costs

The row reflects a broader reversal in Walloon transport policy. From 2021–2022, the region leaned toward quasi-free access for selected groups in the hope of boosting ridership. The new grid explicitly ends that experiment in favour of cost recovery — a shift the Bruxelles Today summary of the minister’s position frames as a bid to protect service quality over artificially low prices.

The distributional politics are delicate. The sharpest increases fall on the 18–24 group, many of them students also contending with higher enrolment fees, giving the opposition an easy narrative of a government balancing its books on the backs of the young. The regional budget context sharpens the charge: the PS has argued the government deepened Wallonia’s debt, a claim RTBF examined amid a wider debate over the region’s finances.

Critics also see a coherence problem: raising fares sits uneasily with the government’s stated ambition to shift travellers out of cars. The counter-argument, echoed by LETEC, is that unreliable service — the network endured labour unrest earlier in 2026 — deters riders more than price does.

What to Watch

The immediate test is whether LETEC delivers a student formula before the 1 February 2027 start date, and how generous it proves. The opposition is demanding the government reverse the abolition of preferential fares and publish detailed per-household impact figures, while PTB’s petition suggests the issue will keep mobilising.

Further student protests, following demonstrations in Liège, remain plausible. But the central policy question is narrower and harder: whether higher fares improve LETEC’s finances without driving passengers away — the very trade-off the government says justifies the change, and the one its opponents believe will prove it wrong.