Most recent activities

2012-10-29

In the past three months EPF has:

• sent a message to European Union Transport Ministers welcoming announcements of infrastructure investment in rail electrification and high speed lines in some countries and urging others to do likewise, as this will benefit the economy as well as creating or maintaining quality jobs in Europe.
• taken part in the "Smart Move" project on the future role of buses and coaches.
• provided speakers for conferences on the EU 4th Railway Package.
• written to Transport Ministers and the European Commission putting the case against any relaxation of flight and duty time limitations in the airline industry.
• supported our member associations pressing for better rail/sea/rail links across the Baltic Sea.
• corresponded with EU officials on the use of cohesion funds allocated for transport projects in Hungary.
• provided a speaker on urban transport for the Salzburger Verkehrstage.
• collected information from different EU countries on "the final mile" - what happens when the passenger arrives in a city by fast train and wants to continue by local transport.
• worked with French cycling campaigners on the issue of bicycles carried in international trains.
• raised with the railway industry the problems encountered by passengers during engineering work.

Past 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.

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.