Rail sector welcomes Multimodal Passenger Rights but stresses ambiguity must be avoided
The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) welcomes today’s publication by the European Commission of the various proposals under the Passenger Mobility Package. Railways appreciate the need for a passenger rights framework in a multimodal context, so every entity in the chain understands their rights and obligations to best serve their passengers.
The new proposals, with varying degrees of impact on the rail sector, include the Communication on a common European Mobility Data Space (EMDS), the Delegated Regulation on EU-wide Multimodal Travel Information Services (MMTIS), the revision of the Package Travel Directive, and the revision of the Passenger Rights Framework including Regulation (EU) 2021/782 as regards enforcement of passenger rights in the Union and the Regulation on passenger rights in the context of multimodal journeys.
CER would encourage a clearer legal text around the definition of responsibility for actors in multimodal journeys to avoid any unnecessary ambiguity. Business model decisions should be left to the transport operators, who should have freedom of choice if their services are part of a multimodal journey in a single or combined multimodal ticket. Failing to establish this would put carriers in a position where they would have to increase ticket prices for all passengers to protect themselves against unwanted liability.
Another important aspect of multimodality is that responsibility towards the passenger should be carried by the ticket vendor. The framework should ensure intermediaries cannot forgo their responsibility towards the passenger or simply shift the burden to the carriers. It is an important part of the passenger experience, and the journey process does not end with the ticket sale.
EMDS is a concept CER has followed closely and welcomes. Facilitating data sharing and enabling data sovereignty, as mentioned in the proposal, is an important part of the vision CER has for digital railways. Data sovereignty underscores the importance of empowering each stakeholder to have control over its data. In the context of digital railways, data sovereignty means that railway companies can manage, govern, and utilise their data in a way that aligns with their strategic objectives and operational requirements.
CER Executive Director Alberto Mazzola said: “Passenger Rights Regulations are an important EU achievement, and we welcome the latest proposed package. It must be studied carefully to ensure that the resulting legislation not only serves passengers, but also carriers and intermediaries, by clearly defining the obligations and responsibilities of all actors. Only this way will we have a framework that enables and promotes multimodality and adequately protects the passenger. It is also important to consider that without proper infrastructure, functioning multimodality is not possible.”