Trains to be brought into line with new Regulation 1371/2007
Business travellers are familiar with the way that European Regulations provide minimum consumer protection and rights to compensation where flights are delayed or cancelled, or passengers are denied boarding (Regulation 261/2004 – see below).
Railways have now become the target for similar Regulations, and by EU 1371/2007 (published on 23rd October 2007) passenger rights and liability issues have been introduced, and which will come into effect in late 2009. This Regulation was introduced following lengthy consultation, in particular relating to some member states wishing to protect their own national rail services from the full scope of the regulations that were proposed. A “halfway house” has been negotiated allowing derogations and exemptions from some of the regulations for up to five years, including regulations concerning the availability of through tickets, liability for passengers and luggage, insurance obligations and transportation of passengers with reduced mobility.
An Annex to the Regulations requires Railways to provide information before each journey including the contract conditions, fastest train times, lowest fares and connecting services. Railways must offer through tickets and reservations to include other Railway operators.
Articles 16 and 17 list passengers rights when a delay, cancellation or missed connection occurs. These regulations propose minimum compensation of 25% of the ticket price for delays between 60 and 119 minutes, and 50% of the ticket price for delays of 120 minutes or more. The compensation has to be made within one month following a request for compensation, although it may be paid in vouchers, but in money if the passenger requests it. No compensation is payable if the passenger is informed of the delay before he buys the ticket, or if the delay is for a period of less than 60 minutes.
Passengers have the right to receive assistance and to be kept informed of the estimated time of departure and arrival of delayed services. In the same way as with delayed flights, the assistance comprises meal and refreshments and overnight stays in hotels where necessary.
Rights for disabled persons and those with reduced mobility are set out in Articles 19 – 23, and include information on accessibility, the accessibility of stations, platforms and rolling stock, and free assistance for boarding and disembarking.
An upper limit of 175,000 units of account is fixed for compensation in cases of death, with an advance payment payable to an injured passenger or his executor no later than 15 days following the incident, with a maximum amount set at 21,000 Euros.
Article 28 provides that railway undertakings are to define and monitor quality standards, which are to be published once a year in their annual reports. It is not known how well this system of self-regulation will work.
These new Regulations will provide business railway travellers with minimum rights, particularly in the event of cancelled and extended delays to rail services.
Cancelled Scheduled Flights due to Technical Reasons
Under EU Regulation 261/2004, airlines are not obliged to pay any compensation to passengers where a flight is cancelled if they can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. These regulations give some indication of what “extraordinary circumstances” might be including “unexpected flight safety shortcomings” preventing the aircraft from operating. A further case has now been referred to the European Court of Justice on this issue – in the case of Friederike Wallentin-Hermann v Alitalia. The question the European court has been asked to decide is whether where damage to the engine results in the cancellation of the flight, and if this is extraordinary circumstance, should the airline be obliged to show the frequency of its flight cancellations and the level of its own maintenance work to aircraft to demonstrate that any technical defect is truly unconnected with the airlines operations itself.
If one of these “technical cancellation” cases succeeds against an airline, we can expect to see increases to ticket prices to cover the additional costs of having reserve aircraft in place, or to compensate all affected passengers when unexpected technical faults result in a cancelled flight.
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