Kortrijk is situated in the south of the Province of West-Flanders. It’s a town of 8,000 hectares and there are about 76,000 inhabitants. Kortrijk is a centre-city nearby the French border situated in the middle of the triangle Bruges, Ghent and Lille (France).

Kortrijk can be seen as the heart of a dynamic region with a global urban policy and a rich cultural and industrial (textiles) history.

In this region, the river Leie had an important role in the industry and now the touristic and recreative value of the Leie is still increasing.

Mobiel wants to become the heart for incubation of cycle-services to emphasize the image of the bicycle and to keep down all possible drawbacks (like easy-thefts, limited radius of action and difficulties to combine with public transport). Mobiel wants to have a stimulating and coordinating role and wants with this interreg project to give a surplus value to the chain-mobility train-bus-car by adding the public bicycle.

We were inspired on our thoughts by the system of public transport-bicycles in the Netherlands and the ‘Radstationen’ in Germany, as well as the bike project of the Ratp in Paris. These initiatives have improved and stimulated the image of a bicycle and its usefulness in chain-mobility.

This project is now being developed in the region of the river Leie, starting from the French borders to the city of Ghent (passing through the city of Roeselare).

The project of Mobiel has three important pillars:

1. A biker-friendly station area in Kortrijk
   • Mobiel has an ideal location at the back of the station and wants to use this benefit to undertake actions to make the station area more accessible for bikers and to provide new bike services:
     • Free “public bikes” at the station of Kortrijk from march 2005.
     • Guarded cycle racks in the immediate surrounding of the station.
     • A campagne to keep theft in the station area down to a minimum.
     • A service station for bikes in the train station where everyone can fix and wash his own bike (do it yourself 24/24).
   • With the upgrading of the stations on the route of the High Speed Train between Rijsel (Lille in France) and Ghent, the station of Kortrijk could be a good example for those other stations. Likewise, all the railway stations on this line could have a better access for bikers and could provide new bike services.
   • To realize all this we’ll work together with some important partners, like there are the NMBS (national railway company, De Lijn (Flemish bus company), the city Kortrijk and some NGO’s, as are Veloods (city of Waregem) and Het Verzet (city of Deinze).
2. New bike services:
   • Biking Mobielis, a bike service that already exists for our customers, will be expanding. This bike service applies to small repairs at the place of breakdown. In the case the problem can’t be fixed immediately, the bicycle will be exchanged for another one. We also want to expand Biking Mobielis in the accommodation of the railway stations and in areas with an increased bike use, as the bicycle track near the river Leie.
   • In the near future, renting a bicycle will be possible on the internet. Just as you can by your train ticket online, everybody should be able to rent a bike online. This way, a railway passenger could have a connection between the station and his destination by using a bike without loosing time on administration tasks.
   • The third new service is the implementation of service stations inspired by Altao. In this little bike module, everyone can fix his bike by himself or have a bike wash 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. In addition, the biker could be informed about biking routes and other bike services in the neighbourhood.
3. Exchanging Know-How:
   • We’ll draw up a marketing plan and develop convenient software for lending out bicycles with the view to pass our know-how to other cities. We would like to inform and incite them to do the same efforts for stimulating the bike and bike use between their inhabitants and to standardize high levelled bike services.

Finances of our project:
€ 385.275 expenditures
€ 174.000 staff costs
€ 37.500 general working costs
€ 12.500 costs for promotion
€ 156.275 investments

Under construction

Under construction