Flagging accessibility as EU eyes cross-border rail through-ticketing

Passenger experience on Europe’s railways is at the forefront of Brussels politics as the European Commissioner-designate Apostolos Tzitzikostas — one of the proposed members of the second Von der Leyen Commission currently being scrutinised — readies for verbal hearings in the European Parliament.

EU rail commentator Jon Worth has much useful detail of key issues, but the expectation is that Europe will soon have at least a plan for providing through-ticketing, protected connections across national borders and railway companies. The issue today is, as your journalist experienced on a recent trip from regional France to regional Belgium on four separate trains, complex.

Let’s start with the itinerary, which I booked via Trainline, one of the few ways to assemble and purchase international itineraries:

a regional French TER train, sold and operated by SNCF, from my local town to Lyon
a French TGV inOui, sold and operated by SNCF, from Lyon to Lille-Flandres
a Belgian Railways TER regional cross-border train from Lille-Flandres to Kortrijk
a Belgian Railways InterCity train from Kortrijk to Bruges

This journey required three separate tickets: one for each of the first two trains and a combined one for the second two, which Trainline assembled into one purchase. Each ticket had different restrictions, ID requirements, refundability, changeability, and exchangeability.

Trainline was very clear during the sales process and in emails that this was a “combined journey” (in other words, without connection protection) rather than a “through journey” (in other words, with connection protection and the ability to take a later train in the event of delays), stating:

Your booking consists of a ‘combined journey’, made up of separate tickets combined by Trainline. If consecutive legs are run by the same train family (see the train logos next to your journey details), you may be entitled to take the next available train without paying additional costs.

Trainline also noted, including in its booking email: “Your connections at the following stations aren’t guaranteed if a preceding leg of your journey is delayed or cancelled: Lille-Flandres”.

But in reality, this wasn’t really the issue at hand. The Belgian Railways ticket that Trainline sold me was not restricted to any one train, so if I had missed my connection in Lille I could have simply taken a later train. But this is very much not always the case, as most long-distance trains, especially the high speed rail options, are now ticketed for specific trains.

What’s being proposed by the European Commission in this case is creating a model where more journeys are, or at least can be booked as, through journeys. This makes a huge amount of sense when connecting.

Altogether, my eight-and-a-half-hour journey went off without a timetabling hitch. But an issue equally as pressing for the forthcoming transport Commissioner is one of physical accessibility of trains for passengers with luggage, parents with children in prams or strollers, wheelchair users, people with restricted mobility, and others for whom the current railways are inaccessible.

Your author, en route for an eight-week business trip, travelled with a medium-sized suitcase, a rolling carry-on trolley and a small personal item. These were simple enough to roll on and off the first French regional TER train, with a slight but mostly level gap at both my home station and at Lyon Perrache (Lyon’s original and now-secondary station). This level boarding was not, unfortunately, to recur at any point during the journey.

A gap exists between the platform and the rail car. And stairs are required to boot.

This Belgian Railways InterCity train was a real struggle with luggage as an able-bodied person. Image: John Walton

The TGV — one of the Réseau vintage of 1993-1996 build — was much less accessible, with several steps up from the platform. This was a bit of a struggle with my reasonable amount of luggage, especially with the crowd to get onto the train. Wheelchair users and passengers with mobility restrictions are only served by the SNCF in French — surely something that needs to improve on a Europe-wide basis. The contemporary and subsequent Duplex units are better, but no information about which type of TGV was operating my journey, allowing choice of service by level (or level-ish) boarding, was provided in the booking path.

The TGV Duplex rail cars are ready for boarding on the French platform.

It might sound counterintuitive, but the two-level TGV Duplex trains are actually more accessible from standard French platform height. Image: John Walton

Boarding was even worse in Belgium: both trains I took had three enormous steps up from the platform, and was a real struggle just with my luggage. Wheelchair users or passengers with restricted mobility would likely be unable to use these trains independently. Lower-carbon transportation is crucial to our future, yet rail operators do not seem to be adequately engaging with accessibility.

Passengers are walking up stairs into the rail car.

Taking another type of Belgian InterCity train required four steps up from the platform. Image: John Walton

Shocked at the inaccessibility, and increasingly curious, I looked into what assistance is available for disabled passengers. Belgian Railways provides multilingual information, but requires passengers with restricted mobility to book assistance in advance at least 24 hours in advance at most stations (3 hours for 41 major stations if travelling between 0630 and 2100), while some stations do not offer assistance at all. This can be booked via the operator’s website (and a special app), a (Belgian) phone number, or via Facebook/Twitter.

SNCF, the French national operator, provides information and services only in French, and in any case assistance must be requested online or via phone at least 24 hours in advance.

What happens in the event of missed connections, or international journeys across operators, is regrettably opaque.

If international rail travel is to become a part of Europe’s future — and it must — better systems, serving passengers in multiple languages, removing barriers like 24-hour notice of a desire to travel, and level boarding wherever possible to enable independent travel, need to be put in place for accessibility.