Fuldstændigt Forhandlingsreferat

Torsdag den 15. november 2018 - Strasbourg

6.1. Jernbanepassagerers rettigheder og forpligtelser (A8-0340/2018 - Bogusław Liberadzki)

Mündliche Erklärungen zur Abstimmung

  Alex Mayer (S&D). – Mr President, this report says that the railway sector has to provide excellent and modern services to customers at an affordable price, and I agree. It has been a torrid time on the railways for my constituents this year as train companies have profited from consumer misery. This summer, GTR, who run Thameslink and Great Northern, cancelled 8 000 services in the first three weeks of the new timetable being introduced, yet these problems were foreseeable. Each train needs a driver who has been trained on the model of the train and the route on which they are operating, but this does not happen quickly enough, and when the problems came to light, the rollout wasn’t paused. I blame the fragmented nature of the industry. The Government has set up a review of our railways and I hope that it can learn from our European friends as Brits spend five times more of our income than our European counterparts on rail travel. I call on the Government to include in its review the putting back of our railways into public ownership after 25 years of failed privatisation. That will mean that we run our profits in the interests of passengers, not for private profit.

  Rory Palmer (S&D). – Mr President, I am very pleased at the progress we have made on this report today. I spoke in the debate on this yesterday, but I want to raise a slightly different issue which is covered in this report, and that is ensuring our railways are accessible for disabled people, and particularly wheelchair users. Because time after time on our railways in the UK but indeed in other parts of Europe as well, I see a system that isn’t working.

You see people who use wheelchairs having to wait for assistance with ramps and assistance at stations they booked and that assistance not turning up. That is a system which isn’t working. People have to sit on trains waiting for that assistance. We have to make sure our railways are accessible to all, and today’s vote in this House taking this report forward is an important step in doing that.

  Monika Smolková (S&D). – Pán predsedajúci, podporila som správu, pretože verím, že po prijatí navrhovaných opatrení sa cestovanie železničnou dopravou stane pre spotrebiteľov príťažlivejšie a preferovanejšie. Som potešená, že správa EP a Rady o právach a povinnostiach cestujúcich v železničnej preprave okrem iného stanovuje aj právny rámec s cieľom prispôsobiť železničnú infraštruktúru osobám so zníženou pohyblivosťou, a tak im umožniť úplnú nezávislosť na železničných staniciach a vlakoch. Súhlasím so spravodajcom, že zlepšenie a modernizácia železničného odvetvia by mali byť aj naďalej trvalým cieľom pre toto odvetvie vrátane ochrany spotrebiteľa. Za skutočne dôležité považujem prilákať do železničnej dopravy nových cestujúcich a odbremeniť cestnú dopravu. V mojej krajine na Slovensku vláda zaviedla bezplatné cestovanie železnicou pre študentov a dôchodcov a týmto opatrením sa výrazne zvýšil počet cestujúcich v železničnej doprave. Toto opatrenie by mohlo byť vzorom aj pre iné členské štáty, čím by sme efektívnejšie využívali sieť železníc, výrazne by sme znížili aj CO2 a prispeli k lepšej kvalite života.

  Anna Záborská (PPE). – Pán predsedajúci, meškania vlakov sa v poslednom čase stali bežným javom nielen na Slovensku, ale vo viacerých štátoch Európskej únie. Posilnenie práv cestujúcich je preto u nás možno ešte aktuálnejšie než inde. Podporujem vyššiu informovanosť o právach cestujúcich, zlepšenie pomoci ľuďom s obmedzenou pohyblivosťou a najmä zvýšenie odškodnenia pre tých cestujúcich, ktorých vlak mešká. Kvalita železničnej dopravy sa meria spokojnosťou cestujúcich. Vždy môže prísť k zlyhaniam, ale dôvera ľudí k železničnej doprave závisí aj od toho, ako sa dopravca vyrovná so vzniknutými nedostatkami. Som rada, že novou legislatívou mu v tom môžeme pomôcť, a preto som návrh podporila.

  Seán Kelly (PPE). – Mr President, I welcome this report also, after some compromises. Rail travel is such an important part of our shared European identity, and it is imperative that this is done properly, seeing that hundreds and thousands of Europeans travel by rail every day. Citizens deserve to know their rights when they travel, and deserve to have all information available to them before, during and after travel.

Cancellations and delays have become almost expected across many rail providers. This should not happen, but if it must occur for some unavoidable reason then passengers should be compensated properly, and I am delighted to see it being discussed and voted upon today.

Although a small country, Ireland’s citizens make use of our rail system and Iarnród Éireann provide an excellent service, but these regulation updates are still extremely welcome and can only serve to benefit customers and providers in the long run. So I am very pleased to support it.

  Daniel Hannan (ECR). – Mr President, you won’t find a single Member of this Chamber who opposes any of the aims set out in this report: making it easier for people to take bicycles on trains, having greater information or rights to compensation if you have been mistreated, greater access for disabled people. Not a single Member in any of these groups will think that those are bad ideas, and do you know what? Neither will the operators of the rail networks. It is a bad business model not to try and accommodate your customers.

The problem is that we’ve moved from thinking that these are desiderata into thinking that they require legislation. It is a kind of legislative virtue-signalling. Our primary purpose is not to remedy and identify a problem, but to let the world know what very nice people we are. The result is that there will be additional bureaucracy, additional paperwork, additional distraction of resources by the people who know more about it than we do in this Chamber, which means in the end that they are not able to concentrate on delivering the best possible customer service. I wish we would have the modesty to accept that we are not always the experts.