New rights for passengers and easier cross-border travel across Europe are proposed by the European Commission.
Specifically, the European Commission is proposing a single booking system and stronger passenger rights so that people can easily book a single tickets for cross-border, mainly rail, travel across Europe, even with different companies.
The three proposals adopted today simplify planning and booking for transnational travel, particularly for rail routes involving multiple providers, and densure better protection for train passengers throughout the journey.
As Sustainable Transport and Tourism Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas stressed during the presentation of the plan, “this is an important step forward for transparency and consumer choice”. He stressed that rail operators will be required to make their ticket data available to independent ticket sellers who wish to make it available. “This will allow ticketing companies to offer more rail options to passengers, in combination with other modes of transport, facilitating multimodal travel,” he stressed. At the same time, he pointed out that booking platforms owned by major rail operators “should also promote competitive rail services when providers choose to participate.”
More specifically, passengers will be able to find, compare and buy services combined from different rail providers in a single ticket, which can be purchased in one transaction through the ticketing platform of their choice. This can be either an independent platform or the rail operator’s own ticketing service.
In the event of lost responses during rail journeys with multiple providers, passengers with a single ticket will benefit from new, full passenger rights protection, including assistance, re-routing, refunds and compensation.
The Commission also introduces new obligations for ticketing platforms and carriers to ensure fair access to ticketing and neutral presentation of travel options.
Finally, platforms will be required to present offers in a neutral way, including, where feasible, tcategorisation based on greenhouse gas emissions.
