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2006-03-18

Annual report 2005

Introduction

During the course of 2005, the European Passengers' Federation continued to develop. We accepted five new membership applications from associations in Greece, Sweden, Spain (Catalonia), Ireland and England, with the result that we enter 2006 with 22 members in 14 countries. To put it another way, the countries in which we have members account for more than 75% of the population of the European Union.

In March 2005 representatives of nearly all the member associations met in Strasbourg for our Annual General Meeting and third Conference. We distributed the report of this productive and interesting event to many people and organisations with whom we seek to establish dialogue.

Our Administrative Council met in London, Brussels and Ghent and, in January 2006, for the first time in Basle.

There were still administrative measures to be taken with the Belgian Commercial Court and Post Bank - but now all this work has been completed and everything is in order.

Activities

  1. A federation such as ours has to study consultation documents and respond to them - which we did several times during 2005. We expressed our views to the Environment Commissioner on the effects of air traffic and the rail alternative for certain journeys. In summer we wrote a paper which dealt with the question: How to measure Train Punctuality? Then in autumn EPF sent to the European Commission its comments on the rights of bus and coach users. At the end of December we also sent them a critique of the White Paper on Transport in Europe, five years after it was first published.
  2. Another very important part of our work consists of a series of dialogues conducted at Brussels: with the Commission, especially with DG TREN; with the Community of European Railways (CER); with colleagues from the European Infrastructure Managers concerning Rail Market Monitoring Schemes; and in 2005, for the first time, two discussions with members of the cabinet of Jacques Barrot, Transport Commissioner.
  3. In December 2005, representatives of EPF had their first meeting with directors of the Thalys company. We hope to have relations with them that will be as productive as those which we have already established with another international operator, Eurostar with whom we enjoy an in-depth discussion in June each year. We also intend to develop similar relations with Cisalpino and other international operators.
  4. Our participation in the European Railway Agency and its research committee has been very useful for us and we are trying to involve a greater number of our members with particular areas of expertise.
  5. The Presidency of the European Union nowadays influences our political work. In consequence, our representatives had in 2005 dialogues with the Luxembourg and British governments.
  6. Our member associations have also written to the Transport Ministers of their own countries on the question of rail passengers' rights.
  7. In the spring we developed contacts with the Bureau Européen des Unions des Consommateurs (BEUC, the European consumers' federation). Our two organisations made plans to work together to establish a network of European transport and energy users. In the summer we responded to a call for bids from the Commission, which was proposing to give financial support to such a network. We were confident of success. In autumn, as the leaves were falling from the trees, the Commission changed its mind: there would be no money in 2006 for such a project. But the possibility remains of financing a transport users' network in 2007 and therefore we hope to build on the foundations established in 2005 in responding to a new call.
  8. This year we have been approached and invited much more frequently to give our point of view. Our representatives have given presentations at Bruges (European Training Centre for Railways), Berlin (NEXUS), Manchester (RDS/Railfuture), Milan (International Railway Union) and Linköping, Sweden (Nordic Rail).
  9. Our website plays an important role for people and bodies who want to make contact with us. At present it is the principal means of spreading our message across Europe and it has grown during the course of 2005.

Topics

Our manifesto contains topics which run like a thread through our work. During the past year, these topics featured in the activities which I have already described; but let us return to five of these which for our members are of exceptional importance.

  1. "Easy Travel" - it should be easy to catch the train and other means of public transport; easy to obtain information, to buy a ticket and to make a reservation for an international journey. We are pleased that Nederlandse Spoorwegen are no longer threatening to close their international ticket offices. Thanks to our colleagues in ROVER who took up this problem. Even if it is not possible to buy an international ticket at every station, it should be possible to find out where and how this can be done. Our members in RDS/Railfuture have written to train operators in Great Britain with suggestions to improve such information.
  2. The conditions of operation for the train, coach, plane and sometimes the ship should be the same. This playing field must be level and it involves finance, passenger rights, effects on the environment. That is also the case with freight. That is why we have followed the Eurovignette debate. That is why safety should be strictly applied, not only on the rails, but also on the road, in the air and on the water.
  3. The promotion of long-distance international trains must be taken seriously. That is why the job of our working party on this topic is so important. These colleagues have studied the problems during a symposium at Augsburg of which they have produced a detailed report and they intend to organise two further symposia in 2006. They have also started an on-line exchange of information (Initiative Fernverkehr) which now exists in German, French and English.
  4. High speed trains in Europe have helped the railways to gain customers from planes and cars; to offer new journey possibilities for travellers. But if they are not integrated with classic trains and short distance modes of transport, then for many customers there are losses as well as gains. This is another topic which we have raised with industry and political representatives and which has been considered by the working party.
  5. Many frontiers in Europe are now open - but, for short-distance journeys (for example, for work or shopping), public transport is not always the easiest means of crossing them. There is still work to be done to make cross-border trains more convenient. For example, we have exchanged correspondence with the German and Czech governments on the subject of the Mandaubahn which twice crosses their common border. Such problems are not difficult to resolve. One can, for example, learn lessons of good practice and innovation from elsewhere - and promoting good practice is one of the aims of our federation.

The future

We have grown. Our house is finished and we are living in it. We are ready to make a leap forward. But for that we shall need more financial resources. Hence the importance of our work plan, including the proposed bulletin - especially because EPF is not just its Administrative Council. We must emphasise the potential of rail and other green modes of transport. We would hope in this respect to work with the rail industry. However, it is also necessary to develop the voice of the users so that the decision makers hear that just as strongly as they hear the voice of the industry.

Trevor Garrod
Chairman