Fourth Railway Package

The European Parliament voted today on the fourth railway package.

The Greens/EFA Group voted against the political pillar of the proposal, as the new rules will not bring any real improvements.

Commenting after of the vote, Green transport spokesperson Jakop Dalunde said:

"The tendering process isn't delivering for passengers and this new package won't help matters. There are insufficient binding criteria to ensure environmental and social standards are met, and the minimum service quality criteria are not strong enough to ensure public services are of real benefit to users. Once again, the door is left open to ruthless competition between the cheapest providers, with little regard for quality of service. With no progress on the development of cross-border ticketing and information, this package will fail those who use our railways.

"An opportunity to level the playing field between different modes of transport has been missed. While Member States can introduce tolls on their roads if they see fit, Member States are obliged to charge a fee for every kilometre on every track they use.

"This package also puts the rights of those working on our railways at risk as the rules for tendering won't guarantee sufficient protection when staff are transferred from one company to another."