On Friday 13 January 2023, EPF celebrated its 20th anniversary. Our event, hosted by MEP Ciarán Cuffe (Greens, Ireland) at the European Parliament, brought together industry leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders to discuss EPF’s – past, current and future – role as the voice of public transport users in Europe.

The event started off with some opening remarks from MEP Ciarán Cuffe who acknowledged the work done by EPF but went on to advise the organisation to “keep channels open with elected representatives” and express what EPF is upset about whilst also proposing solutions for problems centered around user experiences.

Thereafter came a presentation by Jon Worth (here), who talked at length about his campaign #CrossBorderRail: a project whereby he crossed as many internal borders of the EU (and Norway and Switzerland) as possible by train, in order to highlight the problems he encountered and to propose solutions. Jon reiterated that national rail systems work relatively well, but when you cross a border by train everything gets more complex and overall, infrastructure, timetables, quality of service, and purchasing tickets are all poor in quality. Additionally, he emphasised how sometimes infrastructure is severely underused in some regions.

Following on the agenda was a panel discussion moderated by Freek Bos (EPF Board Member) on “Why EPF is needed”. Panelists Nick Brooks (Allrail), Alberto Mazzola (CER), Emmanuel Mounier (EU Travel Tech) and Jon Worth emphasised the relevance and importance of our organisation in advocating for the rights and best interests of passengers. They acknowledged our efforts in promoting fair and transparent policies, as well as our commitment to holding operators accountable for their actions.

During the event, we also took the opportunity to unveil our new logo in preview (to be launched in public soon), which symbolizes our continued growth and evolution as an organisation. The new design represents our dedication to representing the interests of all passengers across all modes.

As we look back on the past 20 years, we are proud of the progress that has been made and the impact we had on the industry. But we also recognise that there is still more work to be done.

Thank you to all of our supporters and partners who have joined us on this journey! We are committed to continuing our efforts to represent European passengers and being the voice of public transport users for many years to come.