The European Commission has published two studies that it requested in the context of the Year of Multimodality. The first study analysed challenges of EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment systems, while the second study focused on how to improve passengers rights when travelling by several transport modes.
Study on Remaining challenges for EU-wide Integrated Ticketing and Payment Systems
Digital solutions, allowing to easily book and buy tickets online for door-to-door journey offer potential for sustainable, user-friendly and effective multimodal trips. With the full development of multimodal travel information and planning services, these solutions can create the conditions to achieve less greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, while reducing congestion and improving the efficiency of transport.
The study looks at challenges of delivering EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment systems, as well as possible actions in the field. It identified barriers, mainly commercial, stemming from the implementation of integrated ticketing and payment systems. The study further found that integrated ticketing services require more cooperation between stakeholders, more accessible data, interoperability between ticketing systems, less diversity of fare products, rules and programmes, as well as clarity in terms of applicable competition rules and regarding ticketing in public services obligations.
While multimodal journey planning and ticketing services exist in several Member States, those services are limited to the local or national level. The stakeholder consultation carried out showed clear interest and potential demand for EU-wide integrated ticketing.
Study on Passenger rights in the multimodal context
When a journey is disrupted, who is responsible for the problems encountered? Which authority should be contacted when problems arise between two modes? When travelling in a multimodal context, passengers may not be fully protected throughout their journey, because legislation is based on modes.
The study shows that single-ticket multimodal travelling remains a niche market (67 million multimodal trips per year in the EU – of which only 5% are based on a single ticket).
The study suggests that a mix of soft-law measures (recommendations, code of conducts, etc.) and a new targeted legislative instrument (e.g. addressing accessibility issues) would provide the best trade-off between passenger welfare and profit for operators. Due to the scarce availability of data, the study recommends to wait with legislative proposals.
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Source: European Commission
