The European Commission has proposed three sets of new rules designed to make it easier to plan and book travel across Europe, with a focus on rail journeys involving more than one operator.
Comparing travel options and booking cross-border rail tickets can be difficult because booking systems are fragmented and some rail companies have a strong market presence, the Commission said in a statement on Wednesday.
Passenger protection is also limited when a rail journey involves multiple tickets from different operators, it added.
Under the proposals, passengers would be able to find, compare and buy combined services from different rail operators as a single ticket in one transaction, using either an independent ticketing platform or a rail operator’s own sales service.
Passengers travelling on a single ticket would also gain rights covering the whole journey if a connection is missed, including assistance, rerouting, reimbursement and compensation.
Rules for ticketing platforms
Ticketing platforms and operators would face new obligations intended to ensure fair access to ticket sales and the neutral presentation of travel options, the Commission said.
Platforms would have to display offers “in a neutral way”, including sorting by greenhouse gas emissions where feasible.
The Commission also proposed rules requiring transport operators and ticketing platforms to be able to reach “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” commercial agreements with each other.
The proposed regulations will be submitted to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament for consideration under the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure.
Member states must also speed up implementation of rules under the Intelligent Transport Systems Directive, which requires sharing multimodal transport data through national access points.
