Broad coalition calls for simpler ticketing and stronger passenger rights for rail travel

When travelling by train across borders, passengers are often frustrated by a patchwork of booking platforms and unclear passenger rights. Almost two in three long-distance travellers have at some point chosen not to take a cross-border train because the booking process was too complicated, and on 40 percent of the most frequently travelled cross-border routes, passengers run the risk of being left without guaranteed passenger rights. The European Commission aims to change this with its Passenger Package. A broad alliance comprising eight associations, four companies – including the DAX-listed SAP and Merck – and a university calls on the German government in an open letter to support the European Commission’s Passenger Package in the European negotiations.
The alliance also urges that a loophole in the Commission’s proposal be closed and calls to mandate the platforms familiar to travellers to offer all available rail connections on the routes with the highest demand.
Read in our letter in German language how the Passenger Package aims to simplify rail bookings and strengthen passenger rights, and who has signed the call to the transport minister.
For a more detailed analysis of the Passenger Package, its strengths and shortcomings, and why it is also important for domestic rail travel within Germany, please read our policy brief (in German) on the Passenger Package. https://www.germanwatch.org/de/93541