In October, the European Disability Forum (EDF) organised an online event to present updates on the revised Rail Passenger Rights Regulation. This regulation came into effect in June, supplanting the rules that had been in place since 2007.
In addition to enhancing the rights that increase protection to all passengers when travelling by train, the Rail Passenger Rights Regulation includes specific provisions for persons with disabilities:
- Non-discriminatory access to rail services
- Provision of assistance free of charge
- Compensation for damaged and broken mobility equipment
- Staff training on disability-related matters
- Accessible information
During this webinar, moderated by Marie Denninghaus, EDF Senior Policy Coordinator, we had the chance to get a better understanding of the new EU rules and hear from key stakeholders: the European Commission, the Belgian Railway Operator (SNCB) and the European Disability Forum.
Andras Mogyoro, legal adviser at the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission, provided an overview of the new rules during the event, placing particular emphasis on the disability provisions. He highlighted the key achievements:
- Limitation of exceptions: Long distance and regional rail services will not be able to limit the rights of passengers with disabilities. Only suburban and urban services will have the possibility to do so.
- Shortening of pre-notification time by 50%: With the new rules, pre-notification time to request assistance is reduced from 48h to 24h.
The European Commission representative also referred to other important improvements in Rail Passenger Rights:
- Assistance in unstaffed stations: If in the past transport operators only had to provide information on the closest station with assistance, now transport operators will have to make ‘reasonable efforts’ to provide it.
- Mobility equipment: The provisions on compensation for broken or damaged mobility equipment have been strengthened.
- Training for railway staff: Transport operators will have to train their staff on disability related matters.
After the introduction, Tom Zonnekein, Accessibility Programme Manager at SNCB shared the experience of the Belgian Rail Operator. He mentioned the current challenges that persons with disabilities face:
- Lack of accessibility of rollingstock and train stations.
- Limited availability of assistance in certain stations.
- Need to pre-notify assistance in advance.
Mr Zonnekein also outlined how SNCB is acting to address them:
- Accessibility of infrastructure (stations).
- Accessibility of rolling stock (vehicles).
- Services (assistance, information and ticketing).
- Culture (training of staff and stakeholder inclusion).
When it comes to Rail Passenger Rights Regulation, the main initiatives by SNCB include:
- Development of a mobile application to request assistance.
- Involvement of persons with disabilities through a panel of 400 users.
- Training of staff, which goes beyond existing obligations as it also targets stations designers and personnel responsible for maintenance.
According to Mr Zonnekein, the main challenges when implementing the new EU rules are station accessibility and staff availability. Plans include expanding assistance at more stations and addressing train vehicle accessibility. Notably, pre-notification time in some stations has been reduced to 3 hours, well below the EU-mandated maximum of 24 hours.
Both Mr Mogyoro and Mr Zonnekein, emphasised the crucial role of interpreting passenger rights in conjunction with other regulation, including the TSI-PRM, the European Accessibility Act as well as National and Regional legislation.
The webinar ended with the intervention of Daniel Casas, EDF accessibility policy officer.
Mr Casas stressed the importance of Rail Passenger Rights for persons with disabilities and explained the actions that the disability community carried out during the negotiations. Such actions included a campaign that collected 60.000 signatures, letters to policy makers and articles in influential newspapers.
The disability community had the following primary goals during the negotiation process:
- Eliminate prenotification time.
- Reduce exceptions.
- Remove the possibility to limit the time during which assistance can be provided.
Daniel emphasised that the revised regulation brought about improvements, including the reduction of pre-notification time to 24 hours and the introduction of training obligations for railway staff. However, he acknowledged that some gaps still remain:
- Assistance still needs to be pontified, which does not allow for an autonomous and spontaneous travel.
- Accessibility of infrastructure and rolling stock continues to be an issue
- Exceptions continue to apply to suburban and urban transport
Mr Casas encouraged the disability community to get to know their rights, voice complaints when these rights are not respected, and actively engage in the implementation of the regulation. To get involved, persons with disabilities can participate in the development of access norms and the provisions of training courses.
If you want to know more, you can consult the European Commission’s dedicated website as well as EDF’s article on this topic.
Related information
- Rail Passenger Rights – SNCB (PDF document)
- Rail Passenger Rights – European Commission (PDF document)
- Training on Rail Passenger Rights – EDF (PDF document)
Contact
Daniel Casas, EDF Accessibility Policy Officer