The regulation on the rights and obligations of rail passengers was originally intended to apply only to passengers on international journeys but MEPs fought hard to include passengers on domestic journeys.
Under the deal now reached between the two institutions, all rail passengers will enjoy a set of basic rights (covering, for example, companies' liability for passengers and their luggage, and the right to transport of people with reduced mobility) when the law enters into force in 2009. Member States may exempt long-distance rail services from the other provisions of the Regulation for an initial period of five years, which may subsequently be extended for two further periods of up to five years. With the exception of the basic rights which will apply universally, urban, suburban and regional services may be granted an indefinite exemption.
Parliament's rapporteur Dirk Sterckx (ALDE, BE) said "This agreement is the outcome of extremely arduous negotiations. The fact that it was so difficult to persuade all Member States to grant basic rights to rail passengers shows how poorly railway authorities treat their customers nowadays. By reaching this agreement we have done all rail passengers in the Union a service. In its original proposal the European Commission wanted to grant rights only to international passengers. Now all passengers will enjoy a range of basic rights. We had to make concessions, notably on transition periods. That is a pity but we had to get the new Member States on board."
The chairman of the Parliament negotiating team, Vice-President Alejo Vidal-Quadras (EPP-ED, ES) said: "This is a genuinely European law. It gets away from old-fashioned obsessions with national borders and gives basic rights to passengers on all railway journeys (not just to those on international services, as the Council wanted). In particular, passengers on all long-distance journeys will be treated the same, whether or not their journey crosses national borders."
Once the law enters into force, compensation in the event of delays on cross-border services will be 25% of the fare for a delay of 60 minutes or more and 50% for a delay of 120 minutes or more, but only if the operator can be held responsible for the delay. And eventually these arrangements will apply to all long-distance services.
Opening up the market
International passenger rail services will be opened up to competition from 1 January 2010. However, the Commission must make an assessment of the situation no more than two years after the directive enters into force, to see if further liberalisation, to include domestic services, should be envisaged. Parliament's rapporteur on this directive was Georg Jarzembowski (EPP-ED, DE).
A European licence for train drivers
Under this directive, for which the EP rapporteur was Gilles Savary (PES, FR), train drivers must hold a certificate stating that they meet minimum requirements relating to medical fitness, basic education and general professional skills. The European Railway Agency will draw-up a report 18 months after the entry into force of the directive identifying other train staff which perform safety-critical tasks and should be subject to a similar system of licences. Following pressure from the Parliament, no more than 12 months after this the Commission must present a report accompanied, if appropriate, by a proposal for a new law.
The conciliation agreement was confirmed by an exchange of letters between Council and Parliament this morning. The full Parliament must still ratify the deal and the vote will take place at the Strasbourg plenary session in September.
