EN    EN EN 
EN    EN  COMMISSION OF THE E UROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 4.12.2008 
SEC(2008) 2954 
COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 
Accompanying document to the 
 
Proposal for a 
 
REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 
 
on the rights of passengers in bus and coac h transport and amending Regulation (EC) 
No 2006/2004 on cooperation between nation al authorities responsible for the 
enforcement of consumer protection laws 
 
SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT  
{COM(2008) 817 final} 
{SEC(2008) 2953} 
EN 2   EN TABLE OF CONTENTS 
1. Procedural issues and consulta tion of interested parties.............................................. 3 
1.1. 1.1. Purpose.............................................................................................................. .... 3 
1.2. 1.2. Consultation and expertise .................................................................................... 3 2. Problem definition........................................................................................................ 3 2.1. Project background....................................................................................................... 3  
What are the main problems identified ...................................................................................... 4 3. OBJECTIVES .............................................................................................................. 5 4. POLICY OPTIONS ..................................................................................................... 5 5. ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACTS................................................................................. 5 5.1. Economic impacts ........................................................................................................ 5 5.1.1. Option 1 No policy option............................................................................................ 5 5.1.2. Option 2 – Standard protection scenario...................................................................... 5 5.1.3. Option 3.I - Enhanced protection scenario (only international)................................... 6 
5.1.4. Option 3.II - Enhanced protection scenar io (both international and domestic) ........... 7 
5.1.5. Option 4 - Self-regulation scenario.............................................................................. 7 5.2. Social impacts ............................................................................................................ .. 7 
5.2.1. Option 1................................................................................................................ ........ 7 
5.2.2. Option 2................................................................................................................ ........ 7 
5.2.3. Option 3.I .............................................................................................................. ....... 7 
5.2.4. Option 3.II............................................................................................................. ....... 7 
5.2.5. Option 4................................................................................................................ ........ 7 
5.3. Environmental impacts................................................................................................. 8 5.4. Value added to the EU ................................................................................................. 8 5.5. Impact on SMEs........................................................................................................... 8  
5.6. Administrative costs..................................................................................................... 8  
6. Key Conclusions of the Impact Assessment ................................................................ 8 
EN 3   EN 1. PROCEDURAL ISSUES AND CONSULTATION OF INTERESTED PARTIES  
1.1. Purpose 
This impact assessment has been prepared with  a view to examining the necessity for and 
desirability of establishing and/or extending le gislation granting rights to passengers in the 
international bus and coach sector. It focuses in  particular on the three main areas of concern 
highlighted by the Commission in its policy docum ents, namely 1) the rights of persons with 
reduced mobility; 2) liability issues (insurance system in the event of death or injury); 3) 
compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of delay or cancellation. 
The Impact Assessment was submitted to the Impact Assessment Board that issued its 
opinions on 7 November 2007 and 7 May 2008 in which it suggest ed necessary modifications 
and improvements of the document.  
1.2. Consultation and expertise 
Before drafting the legislative proposals and the present report, a public consultation was 
conducted in order to gather as many comm ents and suggestions as possible from the 
individuals and bodies concerned. In July 2005 the Commission launched a public 
consultation based on the Commission Staff Wo rking Paper “Rights of Passengers in 
International Bus and Coach Transport”. Th e Commission received 57 responses to the 
working paper from: Member State governments (14), European organi sations (12), national 
organisations (20), companies (9) and other c ontributors (2). The co ntributions received 
revealed a clear division between bus and co ach operators and their associations and 
federations on the one hand and consumer associat ions on the other. As a general rule, bus 
and coach operators see no need - or only a very limited need - for regulation at EU level, 
whereas consumer associations call for extensive rights for passengers. However, very clear concerns were also expressed regarding the economic and organisati onal pattern of this 
industry, and there was no unanim ity about the scope of regul ation and the inclusion or 
exclusion of particular type s of service, in particular  local and regional services. 
2. P
ROBLEM DEFINITION  
2.1. Project background 
Over the last thirty years, the phenomenon of passenger mobility has increased considerably. 
In fact, since the 1970s it has doubled. This trend is due to several factors, but three in 
particular stand out: namely economic growt h, lower travel costs and progress towards a 
“European area without internal frontiers”1. However, liberalisation of transport services and 
the growth in travel have not  always been accompanied by adequate measures to protect 
passenger rights. As their numbers have increas ed, passengers have faced difficult situations, 
including cancellations, overbooking, loss of l uggage and delays. Bus and coach passengers, 
in particular, still do not enj oy the same passenger rights as fo r other modes of transport, 
especially air transport. Coach  passenger rights are no t yet covered by Community legislation, 
and customers therefore have to rely on national liability schemes, fair trading legislation and 
voluntary customer care commitments by operators. In contrast to other modes there are few 
                                                 
1 Article 2 of the European Union Treaty. 
EN 4   EN international agreements concerning passenger rights in bus and coac h transport that are 
binding on Member States. 
What are the main problems identified 
This mode of transport exhibits a number of  distinctive features which affect both the 
operators and passengers. 
Unequal footing with other modes of transport 
Passengers in other modes of transport, partic ularly air passengers, already enjoy a set of 
rights established at Community level providing for adequate protection in cases where their 
journey is interrupted (liability of operato r for death /injury/lost and damaged baggage; 
compensation/assistance in the event of  cancellation/delays/denied boarding). 
Fragmentation of legislation 
Protection of bus and coach passengers varies from one Member State to another. Passengers 
have to rely on national liability schemes, fair  trading legislation and voluntary customer care 
commitments by operators. Operators in some c ountries have developed extensive voluntary 
agreements including appropriate complaint handling and dispute resolution mechanisms; 
however this is not a case for the majority of Member States.  
Atomized market 
The market is characterized by large number of  enterprises providing bus  and coach transport 
services which offer different levels of passenger care and service quality. Passenger care varies from one operator to another and depends  largely on national legi slation and voluntary 
agreements that enterprises may have contracte d. In many instances, this state of affairs 
prevents passengers from making informed choices as to the level of service they are likely to 
receive. 
Persons with disabilities and ageing population 
In general, passengers using this type of tr ansport tend to be "vul nerable", i.e. on low 
income/geographically isolated. However, availability of bus and coach services for persons 
with disabilities and reduced mobility is limite d, and this may hamper their integration into 
society.  
Insufficiency of the current legislative framework 
The current legislative framework creates re al problems for international and domestic 
passengers. The cross-border problems need to be assessed primarily from the point of view 
of the passenger undertaking inte rnational travel. Fo r passengers, there are big differences 
between bus and coach industry. In the first plac e, these stem from national legislation, which 
differs from one Member State to another, resulting in different levels of passenger 
protection; secondly, bus and coach  transport is on an unequal footing with other modes of 
transport, notably air and rail, where passengers already benef it or will benefit from a high 
and uniform level of protection. 
EN 5   EN 3. OBJECTIVES  
The main objectives of establishing the right s of passengers are underpinned by the general 
objectives of the European Union in terms of a high level of customer protection, social 
inclusion of different social groups and en suring the movement of  persons within the 
European Union.  
4. POLICY OPTIONS  
Option 1 "No policy option" - No EU action, so th e status quo remains intact; i.e. differing 
levels of protection of bus and coach passengers  in the Member States continue to exist. 
Option 2 "Standard protection scenario" - Co mmunity legal act establishing a general 
framework laying down only minimum rules of protection and, where appropriate, 
consolidating/amending and/or simplifying any existing Community or national legislation. 
Option 3 "Enhanced protection scenario" - Commun ity legal act establishi ng rights of bus and 
coach passengers in internationa l transport. Option 3.I: international transport only. Option 
3.II: both long-distance domestic  and international transport. 
Option 4 "Self regulation scenario" - Scenario in which the bus and co ach operators develop 
and adopt voluntary EU-wide/domestic self-regulati on measures with regard to rights of bus 
and coach passengers 
5. ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACTS  
In order to assess the economic, environmental a nd social impact of the proposed measures to 
enforce passengers’ rights, an evaluation will be made of the impact resulting from each 
proposed measure. 
5.1. Economic impacts 
5.1.1.  Option 1 No policy option 
This option basically maintains the status quo in the sector, a nd therefore will not have any 
additional impact on it. Thus, no new economic, social or environmental impacts can be 
identified at this stage. Passengers would have to continue to rely on national legislation and 
voluntary schemes developed by the operators. 
5.1.2.  Option 2 – Standard protection scenario 
Liability of operators in event of personal injury or baggage damages  
Additional costs that carrier s may incur, are related to : minimum allowance amounts, 
minimum insurance cover amounts, adva nce payments, legal procedures.  
Under these circumstances, indemnity values per se  are not expected to rise significantly, 
even if EU intervention might set a mini mum amount for indemnities and compensation. It 
would just be a matter of fixing a common economic threshold, on the basis of national 
experience and without conditions in the case of higher amounts. 
EN 6   EN Disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility 
The training of drivers and other staff, the provision of information and similar issues will 
involve other additional costs. Although it is diffi cult to give an estimate of such costs, it 
should be noted that all passengers have a comm on need for information and for trained staff. 
It is therefore unlikely that the cost of providing for the needs of disabled passengers is 
greater than it would be for other passengers. 
Quality standard and information obligation 
It does not appear that the new measures will give rise to any particular additional costs to the 
operators.  
5.1.3.  Option 3.I - Enhanced protection sc enario (only international) 
Liability of operators in event of personal injury or baggage damages  
The effects are the same as those analyzed in option 2. Additional impact is related to advance 
payments.Under these circumstances; transport operators are likely to  look for appropriate 
insurance schemes to cover the risk related to events for which advance payment is due. 
However, given the limited number of such ev ents and the supposed value of these advance 
payments2, the premiums are expected to be very small. 
Disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility 
The capital costs of providing wh eelchair access at the build stage are estimated to increase 
the purchase cost of a co ach by 8 to10% (about €19,150)3. This is for the cost and installation 
of a lift at the vehicle build st age, plus any extra door or ve hicle structural adjustments, 
together with the relatively minor costs of  equipping the wheelchair space with restraint 
systems and any other facilities. Other operatin g costs will arise from lift maintenance and 
removing and replacing seats. 
The provision of fully accessible coaches can be e xpected to lead to an increase in the number 
of disabled people, including wheelchair passe ngers, using coach services. The additional 
revenue for domestic and international services due to increase in travel by wheelchair users 
alone are expected to be 0,5% corresponding to  about 55,72 million Euro per year. Whilst the 
additional revenues for international services on ly are estimated to be 8,14 million Euro per 
year. 
Additional cost to be borne by the coach operators are estimated to amount to 2,7% of the 
total industry revenue for the two considered services. The additional revenue (0.5% based on wheelchair users alone) would reduce this loss to approximately 2,2%.  
Compensation and assistance in ca se of cancellations, delays 
The cost of compensating and assisting passenge rs should not be excessive, although this is 
hard to predict. Nevertheless, the effects on re venue and profits should not be significant and 
                                                
 
2 In the case of rail transport the advance payment in the in the event of death is never less than 21.000 
EUR.  
3 These data come from several sources reported in COST 349 Report, including Regione Piemonte 
grants, coach manufacturers, UK data etc. 
EN 7   EN also the impact on the competitiveness of Community companies should be slight, as all 
operators involved in the sector would be covered. 
Quality of service and information obligation 
The effects are the same as those analyzed in option 2. 
5.1.4.  Option 3.II - Enhanced protection scenar io (both international and domestic) 
The option 3.II has the same subject-matter as option 3.I however its scope is extended to 
domestic long distance services thus more operators/routes will be covered. 
5.1.5.  Option 4 - Self-regulation scenario 
Under this option, the EU will promote a common soft-law framework based on best practices 
to persuade bus and coach operators to deve lop and adopt voluntary EU-wide/domestic self-
regulatory measures with regard to  the rights of bus and coach passe ngers. At this stage, it is 
difficult to compare this option against the others  in terms of expected economic impact, since 
it is not possible on the basis of the available literature to make a reliable quantified estimate 
of the extent to which operators ar e complying with voluntary agreements. 
5.2. Social impacts 
5.2.1.  Option 1 
No new social impacts are expected with option 1. 
5.2.2.  Option 2 
Passengers making bus and coach journeys will be nefit if service quality is improved. They 
will also receive assistance if they experien ce inconvenience during the journey. Disabled 
passengers will also receive more  assistance than they curren tly do. Thanks to the proposed 
measures it will be possible to ach ieve an important social objective, namely that persons with 
reduced mobility enjoy comparable opportunities for road transport.  
5.2.3.  Option 3.I 
The provision of fully accessible coaches can be e xpected to lead to an increase in the number 
of disabled people, including wheelchair passengers, using the coach services. However, a 
modest increase in the number of trips, due to wh eelchair users alone, is not likely to lead to 
an increase in number of services by the oper ators. Therefore, impacts on the level of 
employment of the coach industry are not expected. 
5.2.4.  Option 3.II 
The impact of the measures under option 3.II may be greater than under option 3.I because 
these measures could be extended to include long-distance domes tic bus and coach services. .  
5.2.5.  Option 4 
Under this option the EU w ill promote a common "soft-law" framework based on best 
practices to get bus and coach operators to develop and adopt volunta ry EU-wide/domestic 
self-regulatory measures with regard to the right s of bus and coach passen gers. At this stage it 
EN 8   EN is difficult to compare this option against the othe rs in terms of expected social impact, since 
it is not possible on the basis of the available literature to make a reliable quantified estimate 
of the degree to which operators comply with voluntary agreements. 
5.3. Environmental impacts 
Not all of the options under co nsideration are directly rela ted to environmental issues. 
However, these measures may involve increases or decreases in passenger transport demand 
and therefore the possibility of a modal shift that could have some environmental impacts, 
which is difficult to assess. 
5.4. Value added to the EU 
In principle, option 1 will not alter the existing si tuation, and therefore represents no value 
added for EU citizens. While the implem entation of option 4 may reflect current 
developments in the bus and coach  market, it is not possible to fully ascertain the value added 
of this approach since the num ber of voluntary agreements is quite limited and they are 
inconsistently applied across the EU. The invol vement of EU institutions in encouraging 
economic operators to adopt se lf-regulatory schemes may bri ng positive results  in the long 
term. Option 2 and 3 would have significant impact in terms of  increased accessibility of 
services for disabled persons and persons wi th reduced mobility, revenues of the tourism 
industry and strengthening of consumer rights in the EU. 
5.5. Impact on SMEs 
Given the structure of the bus and coach industr y the measures proposed will have an impact 
on small and medium size enterprises. Options 1 and 4 would not create any new burden for 
small and medium sized enterprises. While option 2 would generate quite modest costs (liability issues, assistance) the impact of option 3 would be signi ficant with regard to the cost 
of a fleet of vehicles available to disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility. 
5.6. Administrative costs 
Options 1 and 4 would not generate any additio nal administrative cost, but options 2 and 3 
may have some financial implications. However,  at this stage the administrative costs of 
implementing the provisions on enforcement of  passenger rights can be quantified on the 
basis of the work of national enforcement bodies under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004. It is 
estimated that the designated national enfo rcement bodies will have to employ 7 Full Time 
Equivalents to handle the complaints related to  the international bus and coach services.  
6. K
EY CONCLUSIONS OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT  
This chapter indicates optimal policy options in view of achieving  the objectives of a 
legislative act. It contains a concise comparison of available options with regards to the main 
policy objectives as defined in  Chapter 2 of the document. 
Principle of non-discrimination and assist ance to disabled people and with reduced 
mobility 
The optimal policy option is the Standard protec tion scenario whereas domestic services are 
also covered. The choice of the best option ha s been influenced by two main issues, namely 
EN 9   EN trade-off between the assertion of passenger rights and increasing costs. Bus and coach 
passengers are "price-sensitive" customers and an increase in fares may cause a modal shift to low cost airlines, cars and railways. 
Principle of liability of operators in the event of death or injury of passengers 
The optimum policy option is the Enhanced  protection scenario (both domestic and 
international transport). Option 3.II is seen as  the best option becaus e it will increase 
protection of passengers’ rights (both domestic and international) and will establish the 
responsibility of the operators at EU level, w ith only a moderate impact on the costs to the 
operators. Option 3.I would solve problems of le gal differences between Member States on 
the issue of international services, but it could also open up some issues regarding 
discrimination between domestic and international passengers. In fact, since there are few if 
any national laws at the present time, the EU provisions would mean that national journeys 
would benefit from less protection than Europ ean ones: this difficulty might be overcome 
simply by including domestic transport in th e scope of the provisions (Option 3.II). 
Quality standards / information obligations / compensation and assistance in case of 
cancellations, delays 
The optimal policy option is the Standard protec tion scenario combined with aspects of the 
self-regulatory option. Option 2 (Standard protec tion scenario) would be  preferable because 
sufficient protection of passengers guaranteed by legislation will al so encourage bus and 
coach transport operators to offer better se rvices without raising fares. The Commission 
should encourage European bus and coach ente rprises to draw up appropriate quality 
standards and develop good practices.