This week, we witnessed a new rail product that will cannibalise the EU single rail market:

• the introduction of a national passenger rail pass is absurdly cheap – just €20 per month;

• offering unlimited travel on all taxpayer subsidised trains, on top of the already existing passes.

• This includes long distance services that are directly awarded only to the Portuguese state-owned rail operator CP:

• journeys up to 8 hours one-way, unlimited each month;
• with the taxpayer covering all of CP’s losses.

This super low price is clearly not sustainable; it will cannibalise every attempt to introduce market opening in long-distance rail.

Even a Portuguese commentator working at German Railways (DB) has described how this new pass may not even cover one third of the cost.

In reality, we can see in some EU Member States such as Sweden and the Czech Republic that you don’t need subsidy to lower fares – it happens from market liberalisation instead.

By contrast, in Portugal, new entrant long-distance operators can only watch as it becomes clear they will have to compete against the taxpayer, which is impossible to do.

It is time to level the playing field, to give new entrant operators a fighting chance against national policies that undermine the Single EU Rail Area and make the high-speed investments in Portugal unviable.

ALLRAIL Secretary General Nick Brooks says: “This is not the time for hesitation. This is the time for courage, for doing what’s necessary to create a fair, competitive market. Private investors will come to Portugal, but only if there are STRONG measures against cannibalisation by the taxpayer.”