According to the results of the Eurobarometer survey released last week, almost 6 out of 10 EU citizens who never or rarely combine rail journeys with different operators gave startling reasons that call for urgent legislative action on ticketing:

23% said they could not not find a suitable combination;

18% said they did not want to buy several separate tickets and risk being stranded if they miss a connection;

11% said they did not know where to look;

9% said they could not buy all tickets in one place.

It is worth remembering that 2/3 of passenger rail in the EU is funded by EU citizens. No other transport mode receives this level of subsidy for its services. This represents well over €100 billion euros per year. 

▷ Do citizens then not have the right to be able to search and book all of the rail options that they are subsidising?

At the same time, in this era of restricted budgets, governments should want to maximise the rail system’s revenue and reduce what they are funding for services. This means making them more commercially viable. 

▷ One of the most effective ways to do this is by increasing exposure to potential customers – and not ‘hiding away’ existing rail options.

ALLRAIL’s Katharina Dekeyser says: “Citizens deserve regulation that enforces transparency.

Therefore, all digital platforms with Significant Market Power selling rail tickets must enter into commercial agreements with all rail operators to enable the sale of tickets.”