EPF’s chair Josef Schneider represented the passenger at the Greece Transportation and Infrastructure Summit in Athens on 30. April. He participated in the panel discussion ‘Promoting sustainable mobility and safety’, along with Stefanos Agiasoglou (OSY), George Georgiadis (UNECE, Inland Transport Committee), Brian Caulfield (Trinity College Dublin) and Vassiliki Danelli-Myloni (Road Safety Institute ‘Panos Mylonas’).

Josef emphasised that in order to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, all planning should be based on the customer as a potential passenger. The expansion of the infrastructure is only one part of an overall multimodal approach. A network of networks with good organisation of the entire travel chain from door to door is the key to a significant market share for public transport.

Hereby, Josef referred to EPF’s priorities for future action (full version available here):

➡ Goal: A seamless European passenger transport system: The appeal and utility of public transport is greatest when providing access to a network of networks – facilitating end-to-end journey-making. Enablers: Interfaces – Collaboration – Dependability

➡ Goal: Integrated information and ticketing: To make informed choices, passengers need to be aware of the existing travel options and be able to easily plan, book and pay for their (multimodal) trip in a one-stop-shop. Enablers: Access to data – Addressing market challenges – Transparency and non-discrimination

➡ Goal: Passenger protection: Passengers, as the weaker party to the service contract, must be treated fairly when things go wrong with their journey and their rights adequately protected. Enablers: Multimodal passenger rights – Clarify the role of intermediaries – Consistent and effective regulatory enforcement

➡ Goal: Overcome administrative and political boundaries: Administrative and political boundaries should not be a barrier to the efficiency of Europe’s passenger transport system. Enablers: Actions to promote cross-frontier links – Making TEN-T accessible to users – Consistent regulatory principles

➡ Goal: Better informed decision making: Understanding costs is important to the successful realization of synchro-mobility. It is a foundation for the level playing field upon which fair competition and the optimization of resources depends. Enablers: Internalization of external costs – Polluter-pays principle – User charging

➡ Goal: A greater focus on end-users: Understanding the needs and aspirations of end-users should be a central point of attention, in order to facilitate a modal shift, while leaving no one behind. Enablers: Passenger satisfaction surveys – Recognizing the social role of public transport – End-user engagement