Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-24-Speech-1-134"
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"en.20070924.17.1-134"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Barrot, the report now before us is a third-reading compromise and can broadly be described as a victory for the European Parliament over the Council, over the Member States that are often over-protective of their national rail authorities and shield them off. I must, therefore, compliment the three rapporteurs, Mr Jarzembowski, Mr Savary and Mr Sterckx. Following negotiations with the Council and the Commission, they managed to incorporate many of Parliament’s demands at first and second reading into the final document. Passengers on European railways will now gain stronger rights, both domestically and internationally. As a frequent rail traveller, especially in Italy, that pleases me and I hope Trenitalia also has to introduce European standards.
I would like to give a small example that shows that things are not nearly as customer-friendly on Italian trains as Mr Rack described earlier, saying that much had already improved. Until about 20 years ago, a station with a catchment area of 20 000 inhabitants and almost twice as many tourists during the high season still had a ticket office that was always open and manned by officials. Since then, not only has the ticket office closed down but the station is now completely unmanned. There is a ticket machine in a very dismal area. Last summer it was out of order for weeks. A note was stuck on it regretting that it was out of order. Nonetheless customers were told they needed a valid ticket to board the train.
With that sort of service on stations it is quite incomprehensible why one cannot also buy a ticket on the train, as in other countries. Since a short while ago, anybody caught without a ticket on an Italian train actually has to pay a EUR 50 fine. I very much hope that deplorable situations of the kind on the Italian railways will soon become a thing of the past.
I could quote many other examples, particularly of information systems not working. I very much hope that the Swiss Federal Railways will be taken as a model. In Switzerland the passenger really is treated like a favoured customer whom the railway administration serves, instead of being regarded as a nuisance and often merely as a disruptive factor for the railway."@en1
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