Jens Rohde, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – Mr President, it is time to end the Member States’ protection of their national rail companies and replace it with the protection of rail passengers. For the ALDE Group, that means we want to introduce compulsory through-ticketing systems for passengers. We want the Commission to develop an EU complaint form for use in the event of cancellations or delays. We want, in the case of missed connections due to delay or cancellation, to ensure a passenger the right to take the next service available. We also want to encourage railway undertakings and ticket vendors to develop an automatic compensation system. We want to push for an exchange of information between ticket vendors and the railway undertaking; we want to rationalise the compensation rates; we want to ensure spaces for bicycles; and, of course, as mentioned by my colleagues, we want to ensure better assistance for people with reduced mobility.

Let me say to Ms Anderson, the ALDE Group will support her amendment tomorrow. We too want to delete the force majeure provision, and I want to thank Ms Anderson for putting this amendment forward.

If we want to shift more transport from other modes to rail, those demands should not be too much to ask for. En marche! as they say in France.