Now that we've had 24 hours to digest it, how is everyone feeling about the EU’s proposals for rail? Optimistic? Frustrated? Confused?

L'UE fa un passo per semplificare gli spostamenti internazionali in treno, ma sì potrebbe fare di più

https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/one-journey-one-ticket-full-rights-commission-simplifies-europe-wide-travel-booking-and-train-travel-2026-05-13_en

Viaggiare in Europa in treno tra paesi diversi è un'esperienza poco piacevole, soprattutto quando bisogna acquistare i biglietti, perché ogni operatore ha un sistema diverso: se il percorso richiede più treni di operatori diversi, il viaggiatore deve prendere biglietti diversi per un solo viaggio.

Su questo punto sta intervenendo l'Unione Europea con delle nuove regole, che costringeranno gli operatori a offrire biglietti unici che comprendano le tratte di operatori diversi, semplificando molto l'acquisto.

Tutto bene quindi? Quasi: come riportato da @erpu (seguiteli!), si poteva fare di più: per come saranno le cose, i biglietti acquistati avranno garanzie diverse seconda dell'operatore usato.

Qui il loro thread:
https://eupolicy.social/@erpu/116566656982600899

E qui la spiegazione dettagliata, con una proposta alternativa:
https://erpu.eu/en/the-eus-rights-and-ticketing-proposal-explained

Comunque un passo avanti, ma speriamo se ne facciano altri.

@energia #CrossBorderRail

Here is our full analysis of the Commission’s proposals. We explain how we got here, what they are proposing, and why making rights contingent on how and where you buy your tickets doesn’t deliver for passengers.

https://erpu.eu/en/the-eus-rights-and-ticketing-proposal-explained

Making rights dependent on how and where tickets are purchased means:

☛ Not all journeys will be available with rights.

☛ Journeys that can be made with rights will come with extra hassle and a price premium.

☛ Passengers will lose flexibility and options.

This is not the way to solve this! We have a better, simpler, more practical idea: https://erpu.eu/en/guaranteed-rights-and-easier-ticketing

We are working on a detailed summary of what the proposal contains and what that means for passengers. But, here is the short version: The commission has good intentions but their plan falls woefully short. Making rights contingent on how and where you bought your tickets is not good enough.

#CrossBorderRail

🚨️ The proposal is out! We will be reading it closely and coming with our assessment soon. https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/one-journey-one-ticket-full-rights-commission-simplifies-europe-wide-travel-booking-and-train-travel-2026-05-13_en

We are watching the EU Commission's press conference. Let's see if their plan delivers for passengers!

https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/ebs/grid?ebs=yes&ebsplus=yes&date=20260513

Whatever the EU Commission proposes will only be the beginning of the legislative process. We’ll be here working to make sure the end result delivers for passengers. Join us at https://erpu.eu

(And our “quick thread” got a bit long 🫣️, but this is a big week for the future of passenger rail in Europe!)

This would require far less coordination and cooperation between railways than mandatory through-tickets, and can be implemented quickly and – importantly – universally. Our policy paper goes into more detail. https://erpu.eu/en/guaranteed-rights-and-easier-ticketing

Most railways have voluntary agreements (e.g. HOTNAT and AJC) that work exactly like this. They don’t rely on having a through-ticket, but just on showing that you missed a connection you would have otherwise made. We just want those rights to be expanded and backed by law.

As a passenger this is how would most naturally expect it to work. If you have arrived late and missed your connection the operator or station manager on the spot should help put you on the next best train, or arrange a hotel for the night as appropriate. And we know they can do this!

The simplest, most direct way of doing this is for full rights to apply to any journey as long as all transfers respect minimum connection times, regardless of the number or nature of the tickets and transactions. Minimum connection times would be set neutrally and be made publicly available.

So what’s the alternative? Focusing on through-tickets (again, sometimes confusingly talked about as a “single ticket”) misses the point. Those only matter because of how the current law was written. What actually matters are the rights afforded to passengers.

The end result is: if you can’t or don’t want to buy all your tickets in one go from a single platform … no rights. Rights that are guaranteed domestically would suddenly come with extra conditions – and very likely a price premium – when crossing borders. That’s not how the EU is supposed to work.

Lastly, it robs passengers of flexibility. It might work for travellers who want to plan and buy their whole trip in one go. But for those who want to take advantage of a special deal offered by a particular ticketing platform, or navigate conflicting booking horizons, it just won’t work.

Second, even if implemented perfectly many journeys wouldn’t be covered. Anyone who relies on a travel pass, discount card, or similar scheme would have no way to combine those to form a through-ticket. They would have to buy an extra (likely more expensive) ticket just for cross-border trips.

We would only have access to our rights once the entire infrastructure and coordination are in place. And any exceptions or gaps would leave passengers high and dry. Rights shouldn’t be dependent on technical implementation of how railways sell tickets or their ability to form commercial agreements.

You might think, well why not just extend the obligation to sell any combination of tickets, regardless of operator, as a through-ticket? Unfortunately that approach has three problems. First, it’s difficult to implement, which is why it wasn’t originally included.

There are two ways you could extend rights to cover all passengers for all journeys. We’ll get to our proposal in a second, but first here’s what the EU Commission might do and why we don’t think it’s the best idea.

Combining tickets from multiple railway operators doesn’t make a through-ticket. You are left with individual contracts and thus no rights. Of course, cross-border trips often inevitably require using more than one railway. That’s the problem that needs to be fixed.