An open letter, and an invoice for €59.94, to Alberto Mazzola, boss of Community of European Railways

Dear Alberto,

It is a little odd for me, a blogger and campaigner, to be writing an open letter to you as Executive Director of Community of European Railways (CER). But the combination of circumstances I have faced today on a cross border journey involving trains operated by two of your member railways, SNCB and SNCF, makes this necessary. And as there are general wider conclusions to draw for EU wide passenger rights, so I am doing this in public.

My journey today should have been Brugge (Belgium) – Kortrijk (Belgium) – Lille Flandres (France) with SNCB operated trains, and Lille Flandres – Paris Nord, and Paris-Bercy – Nuits-sous-Ravières with SNCF operated trains.

The first problem of course was getting a ticket for a trip like this, not least as I have three potentially relevant discount cards, Train+ for SNCB, Carte Avantage for long distance SNCF trains* and Carte TRAIN Mobigo+ for Bourgogne-Franche-Comté SNCF operated TER trains.

Who can sell me a ticket taking all of that anyway?

The answer is no one.

SNCB International can manage Train+ and Carte Avantage, but not Mobigo+. French resellers like 1.2.Train or even SNCF Connect can manage Avantage and Mobigo+, but not Train+. And hell, SNCF cannot even sell me Brugge-Lille full stop, but that’s another story.

So I have to split the ticket somehow. This time it was Brugge – Lille with SNCB International, and Lille – Paris – Nuits-sous-Ravières with 1.2.Train.

But multiple tickets means no proper passenger rights.

So when my Kortrijk – Lille Flandres train (TER/IC 19736) broke down earlier today (the pic above is some SNCB staff trying to fix it), and could not continue beyond Mouscron and into France, I knew I had a serious problem.

Even though I cycled across the border from Mouscron to CH Dron on the Lille Metro, and took that into Lille, I still missed my scheduled TGV to Paris, so had to take a later one. And then had insufficient time to get to Bercy for my onwards train to Bourgogne, meaning tonight I am going to only get as far as Laroche-Migennes, more than 70km short of Nuits-sous-Ravières.

And that is where the invoice for €59.94 comes in. That’s the cost of a night in a hotel in Migennes. An invoice for this cost will be on its way to you at CER.

As I have multiple tickets from different legs of this trip, the Agreement on Journey Continuation (AJC) applies – it gives me rights to take the next available train from the same operator, but gives me no rights whatsoever to accommodation in the case of a disruption. Passengers have to pay that themselves in situations like this.

Now then Alberto, in your speeches in Bruxelles to EU decision makers, you repeatedly tell them that AJC is adequate, and no new legal framework is required.

Are you really telling me that it is fair enough that in this situation – for no fault whatsoever of my own (the issue was 100% with the technical fault with SNCB’s train) – I ought to be the one to foot this cost?

Sure, I understand that railways are going to need a system to compensate each other here, but the bill must not land with a customer who has done nothing wrong!

So I look forward to your reply to this open letter, that I trust I will receive within 28 days. The reply I will publish here.

If I receive no reply I will conclude you think AJC is adequate, and in my future advocacy work will happily state that Alberto Mazzola of CER thinks that passengers should foot the costs of accommodation in the case of rail disruption that was not their fault.

Kind regards and safe travels,

Jon

(letter and invoice will also be sent by e-mail)

* – yes I know I am travelling on a weekday so this one might not apply.

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Source: https://jonworth.eu/an-open-letter-and-an-invoice-for-e59-94-to-alberto-mazzola-boss-of-community-of-european-railways/