• After over 400 meetings and visiting 65 cities, the President of the Jacques Delors Institute and former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta has issued a report on the future of the EU Single Market and presented it to EU leaders.

• It clearly highlights the obstacles that still prevent the Single European Railway Area from leading the way towards sustainable, affordable free movement of people across the Union.

“In several Member States, open access operators still face obstacles, including those related to access to rolling stock, ticketing, rail service facilities, and high track access charges.

(…) Furthermore, regulatory bodies should oversee incumbent operators’ management of redundant rolling stock to prevent competition stifling.

To facilitate new entrants’ access to service facilities and ensure fair competition in the railway sector – especially in relation to ticket vending – there is a pressing need for an EU-wide, integrated, multimodal information, ticketing, and payment services framework.

In that field, significant advancements in developing interoperable and non-discriminatory sector led initiatives are still ongoing, while a conducive regulatory environment for such services is still lacking.” (emphasis added by ALLRAIL).

ALLRAIL Secretary General Nick Brooks states: “Enrico Letta has confirmed the urgent need for more intramodal competition in passenger rail – to attract more travellers to one of the most sustainable modes of transport.”

Furthermore, Mr Letta shows that, in order to make passenger rail as accessible as possible, All Rail Tickets Must Be Sold At All Rail Ticket Vendors. In addition, travellers must be able to book multimodal door-to-door journeys using the same App or website, with rail as the backbone of the journey.

• Now it is time for the EU Member States and the EU Commission to implement Mr Letta’s Report.