European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen promised single-ticket rail travel across the continent in her re-election pitch to the European Parliament, but a similar initiative in her previous five-year term never saw the light of day.
Carlos Ambel, a senior director at T&E, wrote in a blog post in September 2023 that “(then) Transport Commissioner Valean delayed the publication, making it impossible to be adopted before the end of the parliamentary term”.
“She tried to push for a less ambitious proposal which would not allow independent booking platforms to sell the tickets of rail incumbents but just show the connection,” he argued.
According to Ambel, this was due to lobbying by rail operators, who “fear that they will lose revenues from the distribution of tickets and that it will put new rail entrants in the spotlight”.
Fucking rail operators who did nothing for decades are panicking over this proposal. Why does that not surprise me.
Fucking rail operators who did nothing for decades are panicking over this proposal. Why does that not surprise me.