To Compete With The Car, Multimodal Door-To-Door Bookings Using Ground-Based Public Transport Must Be Possible
This month, at a meeting in Brussels, European Transport Ministers called on the EU to make rail the backbone of European mobility and that “passengers can easily compare, book and pay for their door-to-door train journey in a trans-European perspective".
It must be possible for travellers to book door-to-door journeys across the EU using ground-based public transport at the same App or website – in one single transaction - with rail as the backbone of the trip.
The EU Green Deal Needs to Make Train Tickets Easier to Find and Book
Potential passengers need easy access to timetable information and quick access to tickets. Recent legal rulings have shown: The EU and its Member States finally need to make trains easier to find and book for the citizens who are paying for it.
Renfe’s Commitments: Good First Step, but not Enough to Ensure Transparent and Impartial Rail Ticket Retail for EU Citizens
The EU Commission last week accepted the Spanish state-owned passenger rail incumbent Renfe's commitments to a fairer, more transparent market - a step that ALLRAIL welcomes.These commitments, now legally binding, constitute a positive step following the DB precedent last year in Germany and can lead to enhanced competition in the European rail ticketing market, allowing independent ticket vendors more chance to compete with the in-house ticket vendor of market-dominant Renfe.
Germany: in a judgement, Court recognises the dominant position of incumbent Deutsche Bahn’s in-house online rail ticket vendors
The Hamburg Regional Court, in its judgment of 1 December 2023, fully upheld a lawsuit filed by an independent operator, prohibiting the in-house online rail ticket sales vendors of the state-owned rail incumbent Deutsche Bahn (DB) from using certain filter options which led to misleading search results.
It confirms that DB's in-house online rail ticket sales vendors are market-dominant in Germany - and by deliberately suppressing competing long-distance competitors this has had a direct and lasting negative effect on competition - because booking a train ticket requires the search and comparison of visible offers.
German Passenger Federation PRO BAHN Presents ALLRAIL with its Annual Award
The German Passenger Federation PRO BAHN has presented ALLRAIL Secretary General Nick Brooks with its Annual Passenger Award. This is due to ALLRAIL’s efforts to make the purchase of rail tickets in Europe as simple as possible for passengers.