The EU Passenger Package still falls short of aligning with the EU’s climate targets and is not harmonious enough with the EU’s rail policy agenda.

The EU Passenger Package is a big leap forward to passenger rights, and presents vast progress in dragging European rail ticketing out of the stone age and helping people switch from cars to trains. However the geographical scope of the proposals is limited in effect to neighbouring countries. This risks limiting the modal shift potential from air to rail, which could hinder the EU meeting its climate targets. Transport remains the EU’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and unlike other sectors, since 1990 these emissions have continued to rise in recent decades. Aviation is the largest growing source of emissions, and road transport still accounts for the majority of transport emissions in the EU. Therefore it is crucial to enable the conditions for rail, Europe’s greenest mass market transport mode to be maximized in upstream and downstream measures such as the EU Passenger Package.

Major rail operator booking platforms must be required to sell other operators’ tickets across a wider geographic area.

Expanding the geographical scope for the single ticket, the EU Passenger Package would expand passenger rights and the simplification of booking, making train travel more attractive to passengers. The Commission’s current proposal is a good first step towards this. Convenience matters in a modern digital world and the rail sector must keep up. T&E commissioned polling found that 61% of respondents were put off taking long distance journeys at least once because the booking process was too complicated.

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