Passenger rights in multimodal transport
from Jürgen Vogl
The current situation is that the legal provisions from the passenger rights for rail, bus, ship and flight are to be considered separately. This means, for example, that if you travel to the airport by train and miss your flight due to a train delay, you currently only have claims against the train company due to the train delay. Any further claims must be asserted in accordance with national law, i.e. in Austria, for example, in accordance with the General Civil Code (ABGB) or the Railway and Motor Vehicle Liability Act (EKHG). Claims for compensation under the ABGB can only be made if the delay is due to "culpable conduct on the part of the railroad company" (e.g. technical defect). This means that you only have a good chance of (partial) compensation for the price of the boat trip or flight if the rail company is at fault. If the rail company is not responsible (e.g. official route closure), you are unlikely to be able to make a claim.
In order to standardize and strengthen the rights of passengers at European level, the implementation of "multimodal passenger rights" is under discussion. In this regard, the apf was involved in the examination phase in order to incorporate the arguments of the service center for rail, bus, ship and air transport. In principle, the apf would be in favor of such an implementation so that passengers have the most uniform rights possible, even when using several different means of transport.