Towards public transport for all in Brussels: Testing inclusive design-based scenarios

This paper assesses the impact of 15 scenarios that improve the inclusiveness of the Brussels public transport network in terms of access to the city for disabled people. The scenarios are based on improved designs of surface and underground stops and of the vehicles, and they focus on step-free access as well as tactile paving. This study found that improvements are very heterogeneous across the scenarios, depending on the ambition (and thus the cost) as well as on the departure and arrival points. The best scenarios are those that jointly upgrade the main hubs and the whole underground network, in contrast to scenarios with upgrades sprinkled across the city or limited to some specific surface routes.