How to make the rail ticketing aspects of the European Commission's Passenger Package more workable

In my earlier piece, I argued that the European Commission’s Passenger Package is both radical and unworkable when it comes to the rail aspects of it, and explained how the Commission ended up there.

In this piece I will start to sketch out some possible fixes – to make it more workable. The proposals are subject to the Ordinary Legislative Procedure in the EU, meaning both European Parliament and Council will be able to propose amendments to it all.

You can find all the background about the package, and the three legislative proposals, here.

At the heart of the rail part of proposals is the concept of a “single ticket” – this is a railway ticket that combines legs of a trip that are operated by different train companies.

Let’s say you want to go from Frankfurt to Barcelona via Strasbourg and Lyon. At the moment you would have three tickets – one from Deutsche Bahn, one from SNCF and one from Renfe. In the future you would be able to combine those into a “single ticket”, but only if you book them together in one transaction – according to the proposal.

This then leads to multiple headaches, each potentially with their own fixes.

What would happen, for example, if I had a Frankfurt – Strasbourg – Lyon ticket, and then later wanted to add the leg to Barcelona? Two transactions. As the proposal is currently formulated this does not work. I could cancel the lot and re-book, but not all tickets for all railways can be cancelled.

What would happen if I want to plan my trip far ahead, and a ticket for my Frankfurt – Strasbourg train is already available, but the Lyon – Barcelona train is not yet open for purchase? Do I then wait for all the legs of my trip to become available before I can start buying?

What happens if I have a DB BahnCard and SNCF Carte Avantage reduction card that would save me money on both the Frankfurt – Lyon and Strasbourg – Lyon legs respectively, but no booking platform that can sell me the “single ticket” can take into account both of those cards? Do I have to pay more to get a “single ticket”?

You could for example eliminate the “one transaction” obligation, meaning however many transactions you made, and whenever you made them, a sales platform could then bundle tickets together into a “single ticket”, perhaps even allowing pre-existing tickets like a Deutschlandticket or Klimaticket, to be put into the bundle, and ensuring minimum connection times were in all cases respected.

Another alternative would be to add a catch-all provision when a “single ticket” were not available, allowing a passenger to assemble their own journey in those cases. Were, for example, a ticket for some leg not available, or not available for a best price, a passenger would be entitled to take matters into their own hands.

Most radical of all, the “single ticket” obligation could be removed. This would mean that whatever combination of tickets a passenger had, and whenever and with whoever they were booked, and providing binding minimum connection times were respected, a passenger would still have rights in the case of disruption. This would be a strengthened version of what happens now – you would start with the Agreement on Journey Continuation and give it legal teeth. Perhaps the concept of a “single ticket” could be retained for passengers that want that simplicity, but it would not be obligatory. And it not being obligatory would also remove the need for a uniform booking horizon as well.

There is a further obligation in the Package, in the Regulation on Rail Ticketing (PDF) that state owned railway companies with dominant market positions find problematic, namely Article 5 – Obligation for indispensable railway online ticketing service providers to host rail products. Essentially should DB Navigator be forced to sell Flixtrain tickets, or SNCF Connect sell Trenitalia tickets.

As I have argued here, from a passenger point of view I am not that bothered by that obligation. All that matters is that someone can sell me any ticket for any train to anywhere, and not who that is – and that someone can use the Obligation to provide content to online ticketing service providers (Article 4) and Fair and non-discriminatory conditions (Article 6) to build adequate ticket sales platforms. If passengers have adequately good alternatives to state incumbents’ platforms, they will move.

Those are the key points for now. As my thinking develops, I may elaborate these – and additional points – even further.

Source: https://jonworth.eu/how-to-make-the-rail-ticketing-aspects-of-the-european-commissions-passenger-package-more-workable/