Travelling across Europe’s vast railway network is set to be made easier as the European Commission makes good on a pledge to ensure even cross-border journeys involving multiple operators can be purchased in one simple transaction.
The EU executive wants to allow travellers to book a single ticket for their multi-trains journeys in just one click, irrespective of who operates the service, and rest assured that they will be “fully protected” along the way if any connections are missed.
“That means clear rights to assistance, rerouting, reimbursement or compensation, of course, depending on the exact circumstances,” transport commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday.
The goal, he said, was to “simplify the life of passengers” as “there’s no doubt that today their access to train tickets is excessively complex”.
But the European Commission’s major tweaks to the EU ticketing transparency and sale rules – strongly opposed by the rail industry – are also intended to drive down prices by enhancing competition among rail companies.
Online platforms
Companies will be obliged to make their tickets available to online platforms, without imposing unfair or discriminatory conditions on them. If a commercial deal proves impossible in eight months, national regulators can be called in to settle the terms.
The new rules would also oblige major rail operators that, like France’s SNCF or Germany’s Deutsche Bahn, control over half of the national market to sell tickets for competing services on their websites when requested.
They would also be required to show the timetables of all national and cross-border trains operating in their home country within a year from the entry into force of the new rules.
Tzitzikostas said that he wants the new rules “to become a reality within the next one or two years” and that this “new era of rail” should be a reality by the end of the current Commission’s mandate in 2029.
Agustín Reyna, head of the consumers’ organisation BEUC, said that the Commission’s proposal “could be just the ticket to help consumers fall in love with train travel again”.
The two largest political groups in the European Parliament – the European People’s Party and the Socialists & Democrats – both issued statements in support of the proposals.
(rh)
