The European Commission has adopted three legislative proposals to enable single-ticket bookings across multiple rail operators and extend passenger rights to cover entire journeys.
Under the proposal, passengers would be able to find, compare and purchase combined rail services from different operators as one single ticket in a single transaction. Tickets could be bought either via independent ticketing platforms or through railway undertakings’ own sales channels.
For multi-operator journeys booked under a single ticket, full passenger rights would apply across the entire trip. In the event of missed connections, passengers would be entitled to assistance, rerouting, reimbursement and compensation.
The Commission also proposes new obligations for ticketing platforms and railway undertakings to ensure fair access to ticket distribution. Platforms would be required to present offers neutrally and, where feasible, allow sorting by greenhouse gas emissions. The rules would oblige transport operators and ticketing platforms to conclude fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory commercial agreements.
The initiative addresses fragmented booking systems and limited passenger protection for journeys involving separate tickets from different operators. According to the Commission, cross-border rail passengers currently face difficulties comparing travel options and combining services.
The proposals will now be submitted to the European Parliament and the Council under the ordinary legislative procedure. In parallel, Member States are expected to accelerate implementation of the Intelligent Transport Systems Directive provisions on sharing multimodal transport data through national access points.
The package forms part of the EU action plan to boost long-distance and cross-border rail and complements the Connecting Europe through high-speed rail initiative.
EU rail passengers reach 8.7 billion trips in 2024
Rail passengers in the European Union made 8.7 billion trips in 2024, generating 444.5 billion passenger-kilometres (pkm), according to the latest data from Eurostat. The figures cover main railway undertakings with at least 100 million passenger-kilometres annually.
Germany and France recorded the highest rail passenger transport performance, with 109.1 billion and 107.3 billion pkm respectively. Italy followed with 55.9 billion pkm.
At the other end of the scale, six EU countries reported fewer than 1 billion pkm in 2024: Lithuania and Estonia each recorded 0.4 billion pkm, Luxembourg 0.6 billion, Latvia and Greece 0.7 billion each, and Slovenia 0.9 billion.
Measured per capita, Luxembourg recorded the highest ratio of rail passengers relative to population at 46.2 trips per inhabitant. Austria followed with 35.6 and Denmark with 35.2. The lowest ratios were observed in Greece (1.4), Lithuania (1.8) and Bulgaria (3.3).
The data refer to passenger transport by main railway undertakings. Figures for Belgium are confidential; as a result, EU totals for passenger-kilometres exclude Belgium where the national data cannot be derived from aggregate figures.
