apf for improvements to through tickets

The focus of the current consultation is the regulation on through tickets (Article 12), which is of central importance for cross-border rail traffic.

In the opinion of the Agency for Passenger Rights (apf), we emphasized that the current lack of passenger rights in connection with through tickets is a major obstacle to the attractiveness of rail travel. While air and bus connections often allow end-to-end bookings with uniform rights, rail passengers are often restricted to fragmented offers without clearly regulated rights. Numerous complaints from passengers to the conciliation body of the Agency for Passenger Rights are evidence of this problem.

Although Article 12 in its current version obliges railroad undertakings to make reasonable efforts to provide through tickets, it leaves considerable leeway. In the view of the apf, selective adjustments to the article are not sufficient to significantly improve the situation. The apf has therefore drawn up a completely revised proposal for Article 12, which is intended to regulate passenger rights more clearly and bindingly.

The key points of the apf proposal are as follows:

• Binding definition: Tickets for consecutive journeys for the purpose of through transportation are generally regarded as through tickets - regardless of where or how they were purchased.

• Liability regulations: In the case of a purchase transaction via one company, full liability shall apply in accordance with Articles 18-20; in the case of several railroad undertakings, liability may be limited to 75%.

• Combination by passengers: If tickets are combined by the persons making the booking themselves, these are only valid as through tickets under certain conditions (e.g. appropriate minimum transfer time, purchase before departure, proof of reservations or train connections).

• Clarification of the ownership structure: Railway undertakings that are attributable to the same owner are deemed to be a single railroad undertaking for the purposes of the article.

The aim of the apf with this proposal is to make a contribution to a practical and at the same time consumer-protecting revision of Article 12. This should significantly strengthen rail transport in cross-border passenger traffic compared to other modes of transport.

The full proposal was published as part of the public consultation on the European Commission's platform.