Netherlands: The government has directly awarded a new 9-year Public Service Obligation contract (‘PSC’) to state-owned NS to operate the Main Rail Network from 2025 until 2033.

But it is still not finalised: an infringement procedure is ongoing. Market opening would be better - for both passengers & taxpayers.

De Nederlandse overheid heeft een 9-jarige hoofrailnetconcessie voor de periode 2025 tot en met 2033 onderhands gegund aan NS.

Maar het is nog niet definitief: er loopt een inbreukprocedure. Marktopening zou beter zijn - zowel voor de reizigers als voor de belastingbetalers.

Simon Cassidy is a dedicated rail sector colleague from the operator First Rail and Member of our Task Force. This week, Simon will once again transport essential aid donated for Ukraine to the Humanitarian Hub in Poland.

A new €20 rail pass has been announced by the Portuguese Government. It will give unlimited travel on all subsidised trains around the entire country for a whole month – including long-distance Intercity services.

Meanwhile, commercially driven Open Access services and future high-speed trains on similar long-distance routes as the Intercity services will be severely cannibalised.

O novo passe ferroviário de 20€ por mês que foi anunciado pelo Governo Português permitirá viagens ilimitadas a qualquer passageiro em todos os comboios operados pela CP à exceção apenas do Alfa Pendular – incluindo os comboios de longa distância Intercidades.

Entretanto, os atuais serviços comerciais abertos à concorrência (i.e., o Alfa Pendular), e os futuros serviços de alta velocidade, prestados em trajetos de longa distância semelhantes aos do Intercidades, serão severamente canibalizados.

Backers of the current Swiss rail system claim that the vertical integration of infrastructure manager and operator is highly efficient, with a large amount of taxpayer money spent on infrastructure.
In reality, vertical integration only funds a large lobby that indulges in self-PR. Indeed, the evidence shows a different story.

In her interview with Swedish news outlet DN, SJ's CEO Monica Lingegård said: “Given the regions’ finances and the need to be careful with taxpayers' money, you need to ensure that you do not compete with commercial traffic unnecessarily. That we let commercial traffic live and grow in a good way”. However, it seems SJ's stance on taxpayer-funded competition changes depending on which side of the subsidy cheque they are on.

Simon Cassidy, a dedicated rail sector colleague from First Rail and a Member of our Task Force, travelled to Ukraine two weeks ago. This week he is in Kyiv, visiting our partners at Ukrainian Railways and the Trade Union of Railway and Transport Builders of Ukraine.

Kyiv and other cities have come under sustained arial attack almost all week long, and Simon has spent most of the week hearing sirens go off and sleeping in an air raid shelter.

After six months, Armand Duthil is coming to the end of his traineeship at ALLRAIL. During this period, he witnessed the elections in both parliaments of the European Union and of his home country, France.

Therefore, at the end of his time with us, we asked: “How do you see the Future of Passenger Rail?" 

A recent panel study reveals public opinion favours introducing more market opening as the most effective solution to the problems facing state-owned incumbent operator Dutch Railways ('NS'), rather than just giving NS more taxpayer subsidy.

Uit een recente panelstudie blijkt dat de publieke opinie de invoering van meer marktopening als de meest effectieve oplossing beschouwt voor de problemen van Nederlandse Spoorwegen ('NS'), in plaats van het verstrekken van meer belastinggeld.

Now, just 2 and a half years after its launch, Lumo is already profitable and significantly boosting the profits of its parent company, First Group.

What is the difference to the EU?

▶ In the UK, there is impartial retail – All Rail Tickets Sold At All Rail Ticket Vendors – e.g. it is regulated that LNER sells Lumo (and vice-versa). The priority is Full Transparency for passengers.
▶ There is a vibrant rolling stock market. Despite being entirely Open Access, Lumo has a brand-new fleet, funded by a leasing company.
▶ Track Access Charges are much lower, especially for new Open Access services - unlike the 17.7% increase that is foreseen in Germany next year.

Conclusion: Open Access works – but sadly, we are still a long way from achieving Lumo-style newcomers in the EU.

The EU needs to move from annual, manual and national system to a flexible, digital and European one. There must be cooperation in a competitive market.Therefore, there are Six Key Success Factors that are necessary.

AERRL, ALLRAIL, CER, EAL, EIM, ERFA, UIP, UIRR and UNIFE support the implementation of the centralised registration function as the European Vehicle Register (EVR) defined in the Commission Implementing Regulation 2018/1614 of 25 October 2018 and the corresponding transfer of the relevant data of registered vehicles from the National Vehicle Registers to the EVR.

22 September 2023: today, the privately owned passenger rail operator Brightline will start regular, scheduled Intercity services between the two largest transport hubs in Florida: Miami and Orlando.

ALLRAIL congratulates Brightline on the milestone that it has achieved today and hopes that this will be the start of a new era of privately owned operators playing a major role in the US Intercity rail market.

ALLRAIL supports the EU Commission's new Interpretative Guidelines concerning Regulation (EC) 1370/2007 on public passenger transport services by rail and by road, that were published on 22nd June 2023.

ALLRAIL, together with the Community of the European Railways and Infrastructure Companies (CER), the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM), the European Rail Freight Association (ERFA), the International Union of Wagon Keepers (UIP) and the European Rail Supply Industry (UNIFE), issued recommendations to the European Commission regarding its proposal for amending the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and the Taxonomy Disclosures Delegated Act.

We, the European rail sector, reaffirm our readiness to work with EU Institutions to make the EU Taxonomy successful.

The undersigned organisations, representing diverse interests from across the mobility sector (such as consumers, business travelers, rail new entrants, travel intermediaries) express their strong support for the EU Commission's upcoming initiative on a Regulation on Multimodal Digital Mobility Services (MDMS).

However, we voice our strong concerns regarding the presented scope of obligations for transport operators. To fully achieve its ambitious objectives, the MDMS Regulation must cover relevant players of all modes, meaning those with a certain degree of market power.

On 21 September 2022 at the Innotrans trade fair in Berlin, the European railway sector (including ALLRAIL) handed over the Sector Statement on Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC) to the European Commission, represented by DG MOVE's Director General Henrik Hololei.

This Sector Statement on the DAC showcases the need and the advantages to roll-out this innovative device across the European railway system in an accelerated and concerted manner, presents the commitment of the European railway sector and calls the European Commission, the Members States and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) to action.

"O preço extremamente baixo do novo passe ferroviário é claramente insustentável; irá canibalizar todas as tentativas de abertura do mercado", sustenta a associação Allrail.

EU-Kommissionens formand vil gøre det lettere at købe togbilletter til rejser tværs gennem Europa. Men det er ikke uden udfordringer, for Europas mange jernbaneselskaber deler ikke deres data.

For the latest instalment of Global Railway Review’s ‘The people behind the wheel’ series, Nick Brooks, Secretary General of ALLRAIL, shares his insights on the challenges, successes and future innovations in the rail industry, highlighting the importance of liberalisation, innovation and private investment in shaping a sustainable and customer-focused rail sector.

Nick Brooks, secretary general of ALLRAIL, a pressure group representing non-state train operators, told CNN that national rail companies have an unfair advantage over new entrants.

“Politicians must be clear: the night train market will be effectively closed for a very long time,” he says. “This runs contrary to the goals of the single EU rail market – which is madness when a clear and efficient alternative model already exists.”

The proposed strategic investment in rail infrastructure in the recently announced Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) grants will only be optimised if there are modern, interoperable trains that can use it, says The Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants (ALLRAIL).

According to (ALLRAIL Secretary General) Nick Brooks, this is due to an important difference between air and rail transport: "It is not possible to go directly from place to place by train because there are different signal systems in Europe."

"You can't just take a train and set it down on some random tracks somewhere in Europe," he explains. He also believes that a different policy is needed - indeed he even calls it 'a revolution' - in the train area, also in the ticketing system:

"It is our wish that all train tickets can be displayed and sold at all train operators and at independent train portals so that you have a fully accessible train ticket system. Only then will train travel really flourish."

"The national train companies are satisfied with things as they are. There is very little competition. If I asked 100 people in Denmark where they would buy their train tickets, 97 would answer DSB. They have a huge market share, and therefore they have no incentive to change anything."

In January 2024, the Global Ukraine Rail Task Force delegation visited Kyiv, accompanied by representatives from WE AID and Rail Partners, to present a donation cheque of €130,000 to the rail workers of Ukrainian Railways.

This event was covered In July 2024 by PBS News.

"In the United States, competition in the intercity rail market is the answer to the almost unusable Amtrak network. The independent non-profit association, ALLRAIL, has called for the federally bankrolled operation to face competition from the private sector. The call from the association comes as the influential Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has heard that Amtrak’s accounts are almost as unreliable as their timetable".

ALLRAIL have issued a statement, arguing for full transparency when implementing a single standard for ticket distribution.

“While the lop-sided nature of the financing market persists, there must be correctional action,” says Mr Nick Brooks, secretary general of the Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants (AllRail).

“All rolling stock operators should receive the same financing terms as state-owned rail incumbents, if necessary, with a similar type of state-backed guarantee. This should remain the case until the rail financing market achieves a similar level of maturity as, say, the aviation or bus sector.”

Modal shift to rail will remain incomplete without seamless integration of multimodal ground collective public transport (otherwise known interchangeably as ‘ground‑based’ or ‘land’ or ‘land-based’ collective public transport – i.e. no flights). Contrary to car travel, rail transport suffers from a lack of visibility, granularity and reliability for day-to-day journeys.

The AllRail association of new entrants to the rail market said Midnight Trains' announcement was 'another stark reminder that the EU passenger rail market remains much more open in legislation than it is in reality'.

ALLRAIL Policy Officer Salim Benkirane said 'The fact that Midnight Trains’ project was among the cross-border pilots that the European Commission selected should serve as a wake-up call for the new EU Parliament and Commission. How many promising passenger rail start-ups must be sacrificed before action is taken to achieve a genuine Single European Railway Area?'

根強い「鎖国」主義また、こうした課題以上に、⼤きな障壁になっているのが、各国国鉄の「鎖国的姿勢」と⾔われている。欧州の旅客鉄道では各国国鉄が市場の9割以上を占め、⺠間の鉄道会社の進出は進んでいない。欧州の鉄道事業に新規参⼊する⺠間企業で構成する「オールレイル」加盟社のシェアは現在6％に過ぎない。オールレイルのニック・ブルックス代表は「各国の国鉄は顧客のほとんどが⾃国⺠という環境でビジネスを続けており、国内の路線にしか関⼼がない。既得権を守るだけで、他国の鉄道に進出したり、⾃国の路線を開放したりする機運に乏しい」と語る。

The ‘isolationist attitude’ of national railways is also considered to be a major barrier to the development of passenger railways in Europe. National railways account for more than 90% of the European passenger rail market, and private railway companies are not making inroads. The share of ‘ALLRAIL’ member companies, which is made up of new private companies entering the European rail market, is currently only 6%. Nick Brooks, head of ALLRAIL, says: ‘The national railways of each country continue to do business in an environment where most of their customers are people from their own country and are only interested in domestic routes. They only protect their vested interests and have little incentive to expand into other countries‘ railways or open up their own routes’.

"ALLRAIL believes that the Netherlands should waive the levy it charges for the use of the high-speed railway line (HSL-Zuid) from Amsterdam to Hazeldonk. As its reason, the alliance argues that the levy is discriminatory by nature."

Salim was interviewed by the British leading TV channel ITV

RegioJet launched the first Open Access fully commercial passenger rail service between the European Union and Ukraine, on Tuesday evening. The service will run daily in both directions, establishing a direct connection between the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

“Spain and Italy show that with fares having decreased and ridership having grown — similar to what happened in the EU aviation market opening 30 years ago — ‘renationalisation’ is not even on the agenda” says [Nick] Brooks.

On Thursday, March 7, at 11:15 a.m., the gloves will come off and proponents and opponents of market forces in rail will discuss all the possibilities and impossibilities, challenges, wishes and legislation. Secretary General of ALLRAIL, will probably point out that the Netherlands has been on thin ice with the private awarding of the main rail network concession to NS for the years 2025-2033.

In the new Q and A series, ‘Off the Rails’, with figures from the rail industry, Emily Budgen from the Global Railway Review spoke to Nick Brooks, Co-Chair of the Global Ukraine Rail Task Force, and Secretary General of ALLRAIL, regarding the current situation in Ukraine, why rail is important to the Ukrainian war efforts and what would reconstruction entail for the country post-war. 

In January 2024, the Global Ukraine Rail Task Force delegation visited Kyiv, accompanied by representatives from WE AID and Rail Partners, to present a donation cheque of €130,000 to the rail workers of Ukrainian Railways.

This event was covered In July 2024 by PBS News.

Salim was interviewed by the British leading TV channel ITV

ALLRAIL's Secretary General Nick Brooks introduces to our new ALLRAIL podcast series, in which we will discuss the latest policy developments in passenger rail transport in Europe.

Fair competition in the rail sector is crucial to securing EU climate change goals and sustainable recovery

Panelists: Erich Forster, President ALLRAIL & CEO WESTbahn

Christian Schreyer, Vice-President ALLRAIL & Transdev CEO for North & Central Europe

Nick Brooks, Secretary General ALLRAIL

• Link to the press conference - YouTube

• Aleš Ondrůj, Senior Director Communications, RegioJet
• Carl Adam Holmberg, Head of Snälltåget
• Nick Brooks, Secretary General ALLRAIL
• Barbora Mičková, Policy Officer ALLRAIL
-> Recorded 17th June 2020

Links:
• YouTube
• Podcast (Spotify)

After COVID-19 webinar in April 2020 ALLRAIL issued a discussion on YouTube and Podcast channels.

First episode on the impact of COVID-19 on our members:
• YouTube - Key points (10min.)
• YouTube Full version (50min.)
• Podcast (Spotify)
• Podcast (Apple)
• Podcast (Google)

We consider the future of passenger rail in the 2020s. There can be little doubt that the coronavirus pandemic has shaken faith in public transport, but rail remains fundamentally attractive for its ability to move people efficiently with minimal land take and an extremely low carbon footprint. This discussion will assess the outlook for passenger operators and how they might adjust to a ‘new normal’.

Arthur Kamminga presented ALLRAIL vision on the topic of "How to stimulate international passenger rail?" at the Hearing on European support for international passenger rail transport at the Commission for Mobility of the Belgian House of Representatives, taking place on 17th December 2019 at the Chamber of Representatives of Belgium.