Most recent activities

2011-11-28

In the past three months EPF has

• participated in a European Commission seminar on rail/air integration and then provided information on good and bad practice around Europe.
• discussed carriage of bicycles by train with the European Cyclists' Federation and provided them with information supplied by our members.
• pursued problems of night train bookings between France and Italy.
• given a presentation at a conference of the European Technology & Travel Services Association.
• taken part in a seminar of organised by Regions of Connected Knowledge in Lille.
• discussed regional and Europe-wide transport issues with the Transport Minister of Luxembourg.
• worked with others in a bid to ensure that EU cohesion funding for rail projects in spent on rail - first in Poland and now in Hungary.
• co-operated with potential partners on the EU Journeyplanner project.
• participated in the Customer Liaison Meeting of the Community of European Railways.
• continued work on the EU-funded USEmobility project on regional public transport.
• worked with partners on bids for further EU project work.
• commenced work on a strategy for our own development over the next five years.

2011-08-09

In recent months EPF has

• held its largest ever Annual Conference, in Barcelona, on the theme "Connecting People."
• provided speakers for Eurorail 2011 in Berlin, the conferences on "The Future of European Rail" in Brussels, "Next Stations" in Brussels and "Together with the Region" in Debrecen, Hungary.
• participated in the ENERQI and USEmobility research projects.
• commenced participation in the TAP-TSI steering committee, implementing the European passenger telematics project.
• collected passengers' experiences of Railteam high speed train services via our website questionnaire and analysed these.
• submitted comments on the Europe-wide Journeyplanner consultation by the European Commission.
• expressed concern to MEPs and the European Commission over the possibility of the Polish Government diverting cohesion funds from rail to road.
• participated in meetings of the Community of European Railways, Rail Forum Europe and Regions of Connected Knowledge and a HERMES seminar on barriers at stations.
• met MEPs to discuss the White Paper on the Future of Transport and other current EU issues.
• written to Austrian and German politicians and to ÖBB expressing concern about the proposed temporary withdrawal of through trains between Munich, Ljubljaja, Zagreb and Belgrade, and ex[ressing the hope that these will be reinstated as soon as possible.

Past activities

2011-01-03

During the past three months EPF has

• issued a report JOURNEYS WITHOUT BORDERS and an updated list of cross-border services.
• provided speakers for the Salzburger Verkehrstage, the High Speed Rail Conference in Amsterdam and the conference in Trier on European Union Passenger Rights.
• participated in a seminar in Brussels organised by Regions of Connected Knowledge on better cross-border services.
• attended a presentation by the European Technology & Travel Services Association on retailing and ticketing.
• launched a multilingual questionnaire for users of Railteam services.
• contributed an article to the electronic bulletin Railteam Express.
• met with the European Transport Workers' Federation to discuss matters of common interest.
• participated in a meeting with Eurostar on contingency planning.
• met with the European Railway Agency for an update on the Passenger Telematics project.
• met with the Union Internationale des Transports Publics to discuss European Bus Systems of the Future, multimodal information systems and other issues of urban and regional transport.
• studied and commented on the recast of the First Railway Package.

2010-05-11

During the past four months EPF has

• met with the Union international des Transports publics to discuss rail, bus and other urban transport issues.
• held a very successful annual conference in Malmo, Sweden.
• submitted comments for the European Commission review of air passengers' rights.
• established contact with the cabinet of the newe European Transport Commissioner, Mr Siim Kallas.
• provided speakers for Eurorail 2010 in Berlin.
• given a presentation to the European Metropolitan Transport Authorities' annual conference in Budapest.
• met Thalys managers to discuss current issues and hear about their future plans.
• taken part in the Customer Forum of the Community of European Railways.
• encouraged its member associations to study and respond to the Telematics Applications for Passengers proposals of the European Railway Agency.
• contributed articles to the magazines Railwatch, Mondig Mobiel and Regionale Schienen.

2009-12-17

During the past three months EPF has

• participated in the second stakeholder conference on a Sustainable Future for Transport, organised in Brusels by the European Commission.
• given a presentation in Trier to the Conference on European Transport Law.
• participated in a seminar arranged by Kent County Council on European High Speed Regions.
• taken part in the LINK conference in Bucharest.
• sent representatives to the "Move Together Day" in Brussels on urban transport.
• been represented by its Vice-Chairman at the launch of European Rail Passengers' Rights on December 3rd in Brussels.
• written to MEPs and Swedish Ministers about the introduction of bus/coach and maritime passengers' rights.
• visited Kostrzyn, Poland, and had a meeting with the Mayor, together with colleagues from the Interessengemeinschaft Ostbahn Berlin-Gorzów.
• collected infiormation about vandalism on the railways and how to prevent it, for Austrian magazine "Regionale Schienen."
• held a meeting in London with Eurostar managers.

2009-09-28

During the past three months EPF has

• met officers of the Union international des Transports Publics and its EU committee to discuss bus and coach users' rights.
• submitted comments on the European Railway Agency as part of a consultation on conventional rail locomotives and passenger rolling stock.
• accepted an invitation to participate in Eurorail 2010 in Berlin.
• studied and commented in detail on the EU document "A Sustainable Future for Transport: Towards an Integrated, Technology-led an User-friendly System".
• provided information to consultants monitoring the effectiveness of air passengers' rights.
• raised with the European Commission the issue of passenger rights on helicopter services.
• met officials of the Greek Transport Ministry to discuss the future of Hellenic State Railways.
• started co-operation with the Interessengemeinschaft Ostbahn Berlin - Gorzow, including writing an article in German about our work.
• collected information about ferries which have started to restrict or exclude foot passengers.
• made moves to participate in a Europe-wide information campaign on passengers' rights.

2009-06-21

During recent months EPF has

• participated in the Future of Transport conference in Brussels called by EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani.
• held a very successful Annual Conference and General Meeting at Berne, coupled with a trip through the old and new Lötschberg tunnels.
• published and distributed a report of this conference.
• participated in the Concertour workshop in Rotterdam on tourism and public transport and submitted further comments.
• provided a speaker at the CEE Conference in Bucharest.
• provided a speaker at the UITP Congress in Vienna.
• held a meeting with officers of the International Road Transport Uion in Brussels.
• corresponded withg the Greek Transport Minister concerning restructuring of Hellenic State Railways and arranged a meeting with one of his officials.
• through one of our German members, arranged for a meeting between the Railfuture North East Branch and Deutsche Bahn concerning the latter's franchise bid for the Newcastle Metro.
• continued to raise issues such as airline baggage incidents; rail freight priority routes and the concept of a "public transport sat nav."

2009-02-15

In the past 3 months EPF has

• given a presentation at the CIT conference in Berne and participated in the Intermodes conference in Brussels.
• sent an initial reaction to MEPs and the European Commission on the proposed bus and coach users' rights.
• written to politicians urging them to include public transport infrastructure improvements in a European Recovery Plan.
• continued to gather material on, and study, cross-border links by train. tram and bus, aiming to publish an updated report on these during the summer.
• issued a news release expressing concern at proposals to give freight trains priority over passenger trains on some routes.
• met UITP officers to discuss passenger charters, the European Bus Systems of the Future project and other issues concerning urban and regional transport.
• discussed an "Open Mobility" project which could lead to a Europe-wide door-to-door public transport information system.
• met European Commission officials to discuss passenger rights, Eurostar, monitoring passenger satisfaction and the development of European transport over the coming decades.
• prepared a work programme for 2009/10 and updated its manifesto (to be published after the 2009 conference).

2008-11-21

In recent weeks we have

• given a presentation to a conference in Amsterdam on railway interiors.
• responded to the European Commission consultation on rail/air integrated ticketing.
• Sent a delegate to the Gatwick Conference on Rail/Air Ticketing.
• held meetings with senior managers of Eurostar and Thalys to discuss their services.
• had meetings with senior officers of UITP and UIC.
• written about rail passengers' rights to most national transport ministers from Estonia to Portugal.
• taken part in the 6th Salzburger Verkehrstage - conference on car-free tourism.
• worked on a new edition of our report "Journeys without Borders", studing progress with, and challenges to, cross-border travel by public transport.
• raised with relevant authorities issues ranging from ticket sales to train safety.