Wallonia makes OTW the internal operator of public transport

The Belgian Official Gazette of September 28, 2026, publishes the Walloon decree of September 3, 2026, amending the decree of December 21, 1989, relating to the public transport service for persons in the Walloon Region, under the reference [C − 2026/007016]. The text, adopted by the Walloon Parliament in plenary session on September 2, 2026, and sanctioned by the Walloon Government, establishes the OTW (Walloon Transport Operator) as an internal operator within the meaning of European Regulation No 1370/2007. It also frames the reduction and gratuity schemes applicable to TEC users.

The decree of December 21, 1989, last amended by the decree of December 18, 2024, previously governed the SRWT and its operating companies. The reform formalizes the substitution of the OTW for the Société Régionale Wallonne du Transport and the former absorbed operating companies effective January 1, 2019: TEC Brabant wallon, TEC Charleroi, TEC Hainaut, TEC Liège-Verviers, and TEC Namur-Luxembourg. The registered office of the OTW remains established in Namur; its capital consists of category A and B shares, with each Walloon municipality holding a category B share with a consultative vote.

Furthermore, the text creates a transport organizing authority, an administrative service designated by the Government, responsible for advising it, monitoring and controlling the execution of the public service contract, and producing a semi-annual report transmitted to Parliament and made public.

The OTW, an internal operator with an exclusive right

The Walloon Government becomes the competent local authority within the meaning of European Regulation No 1370/2007, and the OTW becomes the internal operator. Within this framework, the Government may grant it an exclusive right, the content of which it determines, as well as compensation for which it sets the method of calculation.

These two elements are contained in a public service contract. The OTW is entrusted with a transport plan across the regional territory, the commercial policy and tariff structures, the management of bus station, light rail, and tramway infrastructures, as well as personnel recruitment and the acquisition of rolling stock.

A five-year public service contract

The Government and the OTW conclude public service contracts for a duration of five years. Upon expiry, the Government may establish provisional general rules for a maximum duration of ten years, in accordance with Article 4.3 of European Regulation No 1370/2007.

In the absence of the signature of a new contract or a decision by the Government, the contract is automatically extended for a maximum of one year, up to two times. The contract specifies, in particular, the public service obligations, the potential use of subcontracting, intermodality objectives, and the procedures for data transmission between the OTW and the organizing authority.

Regulated Fare Reductions and Free Travel

The OTW may apply reduction and free travel schemes, now divided by category:

• generalized reduction: people in precarious situations, youth or students, large families;
• preferential rate subject to conditions: youth movement groups, elderly persons;
• free travel: children under twelve years of age, veterans and war victims or their beneficiaries, visually impaired or blind persons holding the national reduction card, companions of disabled persons holding the “free companion” national card, employees of regional public transport operators and members of their household.

The OTW applies an annual indexation of fares based on the latest consumer price index published by the Federal Public Service Economy.

Administrative Fines and Entry into Force

The decree allows the Government to classify behaviors hindering the public transport service as administrative offenses, with a maximum fine of 500 euros, indexed every January 1st to the health index. The ceiling is 175 euros for minors who have reached the age of fourteen. Alternative measures are provided, including citizen service and local mediation.

The text enters into force on the day of its publication in the Belgian Official Gazette, with the exception of Articles 27 to 48, for which the date is set for January 1, 2028, although the Government may move this deadline forward.

For TEC users, the impact is twofold: the categories entitling one to a reduction or free travel are now fixed by decree and no longer by simple fare practice, while the network shifts to an exclusive right regime negotiated for five years with the Walloon Government. The decree was promulgated in Namur on September 3, 2026, by Minister-President A. Dolimont and the Vice-President and Minister of Territory, Infrastructure, Mobility, and Local Authorities F. Desquesnes.

Source: Belgian Official Gazette of September 28, 2026, Walloon decree of September 3, 2026, [C − 2026/007016], p. 52028.