The quality of passenger transport services is an aspect that will gain increasing importance in the coming years, in view of the ageing of population and of the need to promote more resource-efficient public transport. Attractive frequencies, reliability and intermodal integration are the main characteristics of service quality.
The availability of information over travelling time and routing alternatives is equally relevant.
Topics such as the rights of passengers, public service contracting – challenges in the organization of passenger transport, solutions for an efficient and green railway passenger transport, tram and underground projects – a stimulus for urban development, but also high-speed railway transport projects in the Wider Black Sea Area (WBSA) will be discussed and debated during the seventh edition of the Railway Days – the Railway Investment Summit in the Wider Black Sea Area, organized in Bucharest on 9-10 October by Club Feroviar and the Romanian Railway Industry Association (AIF).
At the present time, many inland passenger transport services which are required in the general economic interest cannot be ope-rated on a commercial basis. The competent authorities of the member states must be able to act to ensure that such services are provided. The mechanisms that they can use to ensure that public passenger transport services are provided include the following: the award of exclusive rights to public service operators, the grant of financial compensation to public ser-
vice operators and the definition of general rules for the operation of public transport which are applicable to all operators. If member states, in accordance with this Regulation, choose to exclude certain general rules from its scope, the general regime for State aid should apply.
Many Member States have enacted legislation providing for the award of exclusive rights and public service contracts in at least part of their public transport market, on the basis of transparent and fair competitive award procedures. Consequently, trade between member states has developed significantly and several public service operators are now providing public passenger transport services in more than one member state. However, developments in national legislation have led to disparities in the procedures applied and have created legal uncertainty as to the rights of public service operators and the duties of the competent authorities. Therefore, it would be necessary to update the community legal framework. The public service obligation should support railway passenger transport operators and support the intensification of multimodal passenger transport.
The participants at the Summit to debate such wide interest topics are Frank Jost, Single European Rail Area DG MOVE – European Commission, Szórád Róbert, Deputy Manager – MAV Start, Bertram Ludwig, Junior Ma-
nager Regional Office – UITP, Helmut Meelich, Project Manager TER – UNECE and Boris Živec, Director – Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Railway Transport.
Share on:
