2008-03-15

Annual report 2007

Introduction

During 2007 EPF has continued to grow, with two new membership applications, from Greece and Germany, so that we enter 2008 with 26 members in 15 countries and one associate member.

We have also attracted the interest of individuals in other countries such as Poland, Denmark, Latvia and Finland and we issued a short guide explaining how to establish and run an organisation for public transport users.

Our 5th Annual General Meeting and Conference, at Ismaning near Munich, was a great success with some 75 delegates and we published and distributed an interesting report about it.

The Council of the Federation met in Basle, Brussels and Berlin and the officers also had a meeting in Brussels for administrative discussions. Since July the officers have also had a monthly teleconference - a very useful innovation to assist our functioning.

Activities

1. We established an activities bulletin of which two issues have been published and distributed, in July and December. This is an important step in our development as an effective voice of passengers.
2. A second project which came to fruition in 2007 was our report on cross-border links: Journeys without Borders. It appeared in October and some hundred copies have been distributed. We have stressed that this report is not the last word, but rather the first word in a debate that should take place. The improvement of cross-border links is evolving. Since the publication of our report, for example, the construction works for the reopening of the line from Ahlbeck Border to Świnoujście on the German/Polish frontier have started. We therefore hope to produce an updated electronic version of the report once a year.
3. We are working with ERA on the telematics project (European Standard Information System) - something which is essential to encourage and facilitate international journeys, especially for those people who do not just want to travel by high speed train.
4. A colloquium at Schluchsee (Black Forest) has continued our study of the problems of long-distance rail travel and it is hoped to organise a further one in 2008. The problems of information and use of local public transport for the customer who arrives in a city after a long journey were given particular consideration. In this respect, the "Nahverkehrswegweiser" website needs to be better known and we have spoken about this question with UITP.
5. We also studied TENs (Trans European Networks) where rail investment is essential so that trains win a greater share of the market.
6. In search of financial support we worked with UIC and other potential partners to draw up a submission for the FP7 project. Despite a lot of work spent preparing the bid, nothing was obtained, but the people with whom we networked could be productive partners in the future.
7. There are some projects in our work programme on which we did not have the resources to devote very much effort - for example, the question of night trains. We expect to devote more time to these projects during 2008.
8. Apart from our work programme, we maintained our dialogue with companies such as Eurostar and Thalys and international bodies such as the European Commission, CER, UITP, UIC and CIT. We took part in the annual seminar of the European Training Centre for Railways and we accepted invitations to give presentations to ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) and UIC. Further, EPF became a member of the Global Alliance for EcoMobility.
9. Bilateral relations between our member associations have continued - for example, between Railfuture and Pro Bahn (Germany) when organising a British group visit to Leipzig; and with the participation of representatives of FNAUT in the Annual Conference of Rail Users at Ely, England.

Themes

1. We issued a news release giving our view of the 3rd Railway Package of the European Commission. It is good that the Commission will be giving rights to rail passengers, but for us this is only a start - it is necessary to go further.
2. Another welcome beginning was the creation of Railteam - a team of several train operators - which should make international rail journeys easier. We shall monitor its development with interest.
3. The consultation over the Green paper on Sustainable Urban Mobility began in 2007 and we have considered the questions posed by the European Commission. Our submission will appear in March 2008. As far as we are concerned, public transport in European cities and conurbations must be user-friendly so that it attracts more passengers out of their cars.
4. Other ongoing themes in our discussions are high speed railways (especially their integration into the public transport network) and the need for more capacity at many places in the rail network.

Conclusion

It is necessary to gather, analyse and publish the experiences of passengers and to consider how the means of public transport may be improved. That is a key role of a federation such as ours, which will then express the views of train, bus and urban transport customers. We shall continue to seek new members and additional resources to strengthen these activities. I thank all those who have contributed to our progress during 2007.

Trevor Garrod
Chairman