• To counter the dominance of the private motor car and reduce carbon emissions, it is crucial to enable door-to-door bookings on ground-based public transport, with rail as the backbone of the journey.

• This is what European transport ministers agreed upon in their new declaration on the future of European mobility (see point 3 here).

• Therefore a common technical standard across all ground transportation modes must be introduced.

• That standard should be the tried and tested Transmodel NeTEx, proven to be technically superior and flexible, and offering full transparency for travellers.

The current fragmentation of ground public transport ticketing must end, if it is to compete effectively versus aviation and the car. At present, there are a myriad of ground public transport connections not available in one booking.

Therefore, it must be possible to merge first-and-last-mile transport with long distance rail into one booking – under one single technical standard – with secure passenger rights covering the entire door-to-door journey.

The technical standard Transmodel NeTEx can handle all multi-modality as well as dynamic (‘yield managed’) fares. It has been developed in a neutral and independent manner – with full transparency at its core.

Transmodel NeTEx will solve the problem, meaning huge new revenue potential for both rail and first-and-last-mile operators – a Win-Win for All. It has already been successfully implemented across all ground transport in an entire country – Norway – and now we call for it to now be recognised and implemented across the entire European single market and beyond.