Rail Sector making significant strides on seamless rail ticketing
The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) has released its fourth progress report on the implementation of its Ticketing Roadmap, which was published in autumn 2021. This roadmap outlines the rail sector’s vision for ticketing and distribution by 2025 and 2030, aiming to enhance the passenger experience in the Single European Railway Area and support the EU’s climate and growth goals. So far notable achievements of the Roadmap are geographical expansion of the CIT Agreement on Journey Continuation – now covering over 90% of CER members’ traffic; increased adoption of eTCD – a centralised passenger ticket management system playing a crucial role in journey protection; and deployment in Sweden of the OSDM specification for ticket distribution.
To track progress and identify key areas for improvement, CER conducts biannual surveys among passenger railways. The latest report, based on a survey from April and May 2024, summarises the current status, and highlights areas needing more focus. The findings were endorsed by the CER General Assembly on 23 September 2024.
The Roadmap aligns with the European Commission’s 2024-2029 policy agenda, particularly its goal to simplify digital booking and ticketing. CER members are working hard to implement the Roadmap, so that passengers in Europe can benefit from a much-improved European ticketing experience already in 2025. Significant progress includes the development of a new real-time information platform, expected to be completed by early 2025. This platform will allow railways to share real-time data and integrate with third-party systems, thereby enhancing passengers’ access to information across the European rail network.
Actions related to extending booking horizons and harmonising ticketing conditions still require special attention. However, notable progress has been achieved as railways have taken on some commercial risks, such as extending booking horizons and making customer improvements through bilateral agreements with partner railways.
In mid-April, Sweden officially rolled out the Open Sales & Distribution Model (OSDM) nationwide, marking a significant advancement in the implementation of the Ticketing Roadmap. As one of the most competitive and open rail markets in the European Union, Sweden has adopted OSDM as the standard for national ticket distribution across rail and other transport modes, benefiting both rail ticket retailers and distributors. Additionally, Sweden’s use case demonstrates that OSDM, as a neutral and open standard, is compatible with other standards like NeTEx for timetables. Further OSDM implementations and connectivity projects between railways and ticket vendors are on the horizon.
For the first time, the fourth implementation monitoring survey also explored the railways’ multimodality capabilities and objectives. This was aimed at gathering input for the 2030 horizon of the Roadmap. While the primary focus of Roadmap activities remains on achieving the 2025 goals, railways are already gearing up for the next phase, 2026-2030. The survey results revealed a varied landscape regarding the current state of multimodal timetable information, the bookability of multimodal journeys, and related aspects. Efforts to harmonise these capabilities are being evaluated and will be incorporated into the 2026-2030 work programme.
The next survey to monitor implementation progress is set for autumn 2024. As before, the key findings will be shared after receiving endorsement from the members of CER.
CER Executive Director Alberto Mazzola said: “Full and timely implementation of the CER Ticketing Roadmap remains a top priority for CER members, as reaffirmed at the recent CER General Assembly. To enhance international rail ticketing, we once again urge the European Commission to integrate OSDM into the TSI TA Regulation (Technical Specification for Interoperability, Telematics Applications). This revision should not be finalised without ensuring that ongoing sector investments are protected.”
The fourth progress report on the implementation of the CER Ticketing Roadmap is accessible here.
The CER Ticketing Roadmap is accessible here.
Download below the press release.