WRITTEN QUESTION E-0435/03 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Interests of the railway companies in restricting cross-border passengers from embarking and disembarking.
Date: 2003-02-18
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: business policy, carriage of passengers, common transport policy, consumer protection, cross-border transport, organisation of transport, rail transport, railway station, transport company, transport user

9.10.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 242 E/131

(2003/C 242 E/136)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0419/03

by Laura González Álvarez (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(17 February 2003)

Subject: Spanish National Hydrological Plan (NHP): Júcar-Vinalopó transfer scheme

The construction scheme for transferring water from the basin of the river Júcar to that of the Vinalopó
was approved as part of the Júcar Basin Hydrological Plan, and ratified in Annex II of the NHP in July
2001. The course to be followed by the transfer channel runs parallel to the existing Tagus-Segura link,
and converges with the planned transfer of the Ebro to the Spanish south-east. The water transfer is
designed to develop new irrigation areas for heavily subsidised continental crops in the upper and middle
reaches of the Júcar, as well as unsustainable tourist and urban development. All this will have increased
negative repercussions on the lower reaches of the Júcar and the Albufera, and on the quality of Valencia’s
water supplies. The scheme’s environmental impact assessment did not assess alternatives, nor take account
of these and other problems, such as environmental impact on the Natura 2000 Network and areas of
ornithological importance.

On 4 October, the Spanish Government asked the Commission to cofund the project (EUR 54 million).
The Commission indicated that its reply would be given within three months, i.e. before 4 January 2003.
Without waiting for the EU decision, the Spanish Prime Minister laid the first stone of the new channel on
14 November 2002.

Can the Commission tell me what stage has been reached with regard to processing this request for aid?

Has the Commission made any assessment of the project and of the accompanying environmental impact
study?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(3 April 2003)

The project in question was presented for Community financing as a major project under the operational
programme for the region of Valencia, and an environmental impact study was carried out.

The Commission has requested further information from the Spanish authorities, but to date they have not
provided it.

We will inform the Honourable Member of their reply as soon as we receive it.

(2003/C 242 E/137)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0435/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(18 February 2003)

Subject: Interests of the railway companies in restricting cross-border passengers from embarking and

disembarking

1.
Is the Commission aware that more and more frequently railway companies are stipulating that the
staging points on long-distance cross-border passenger train routes are either stations of embarkation or
disembarkation, which means that passengers are now prohibited from travelling to embarkation stations
or leaving from disembarkation stations; these measures are reinforced by not providing information about
the stopping times and platform numbers of the trains concerned at the relevant stations?

2.
Is the Commission also aware that the measures described in paragraph 1 are not restricted to
passengers making short domestic journeys who are directed to another train which will soon be stopping
at the same station, but that they also apply to cross-border journeys on routes hundreds of kilometres
long where the volume of passenger traffic is low?

C 242 E/132

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

9.10.2003

Is the Commission also aware that the international trains that passengers are now prohibited from
3.
using are often the first or last trains of the day on the route concerned, thereby preventing passengers
from reaching their destination or transfer station as quickly as possible. To give some illustrations, in
2003 on the summer night train from Amsterdam to Paris via Brussels, boarding in Brussels will be
prohibited and in 2002 similar rules were introduced for the Amsterdam-Duisburg-Mannheim-Munich/
Zurich night train (where disembarkation is prohibited as far as Munich and in Basle) and on the
Barcelona-Cebère-Paris/Milan route disembarkation has been prohibited for some time at the French border
and transfer station of Cebère?

Can the Commission confirm that rules of this kind prohibiting embarkation and disembarkation
4.
have been introduced solely in the interests of the railway companies themselves, as a way of making
management easier by reducing the need to check passengers embarking and disembarking?

In the Commission’s view, are there other reasons why railway companies introduce such irritating

5.
measures that inconvenience a section of their passengers?

(2003/C 242 E/138)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0436/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(18 February 2003)

Subject: Criteria to protect cross-border train passengers from the restrictions on boarding or disembarking

from international trains

1.
Is the Commission aware that cross-border train passengers who face problems because they are
denied access to some express services and are now dependent on the willingness of conductors to make
exceptions to allow them to board trains, and that it is difficult to discuss the matter because train staff are
under instructions to turn passengers away and to allow the trains to depart rapidly from stations?

2.
Does the Commission share the view that preventing passengers from boarding or disembarking is
extremely bad customer service because the potential passengers on a train bound for their destination are
forced to wait a long time for another train, take a different route, travel for much longer or use a mode of
transport other than the train?

Are measures of this kind compatible with the objectives of the White Paper ‘Time to choose’ on

3.
European transport policy up to the year 2010?

Are the increasing number of rules prohibiting the boarding or disembarking from international
level? Was the Commission

4.
passenger trains the result of an agreement at European or international
involved in the introduction of these measures and the relevant criteria? If so, what criteria now apply?

Is the Commission prepared to take steps to ensure that more passenger-friendly criteria are applied
5.
when introducing or maintaining rules prohibiting embarkation and disembarkation, so that any refusal to
accept passengers, is only permissible if, for instance, the passengers can take another train bound for the
same final destination within half an hour and connecting with the same through trains at the transfer
stations?

Is the Commission including a measure of this kind in the regulation on train passenger rights it

6.
plans for 2003

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-0435/03 and E-0436/03
given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(2 April 2003)

The Commission is aware of the fact that there may be conditions to passengers for embarking and
disembarking a particular cross-border rail service. These conditions are part of the commercial policy of