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Meglena Kuneva (EC) promoted in Romania 'Passenger rights' campaign
Awareness of rail passenger rights has improved in 2011 from 2010, but a market with multiple players could be an important step forward in observing the rights of the citizens, considers Meglena Kuneva, advisor on passengers rights to European Commission vice-president Siim Kallas, during her visit to Bucharest to determine the way rail passengers' rights are being applied.
'The European Commission is interested in introducing European standards in national legislation. I have no signal that Romania would have problems at this chapter. Passengers, however, need to know their rights and what services they must be offered. They can in the first place make a comparison with other states they travel to while on vacation,' Kuneva on Friday told a press conference.
As concerns the situation of the rail transport infrastructure, Meglena Kuneva said that she noticed an improvement from the previous year. She also said that a first step towards improving consumer services could be the introduction of more players in the market.
Romania has asked the EC for a derogation from EU standards on national rail transport, because works are currently being carried out for the rehabilitation of transport infrastructure. Other states too - Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany included - have asked for exemptions for certain provisions of the European legislation. According to the European official, Romania, just like the other European countries, has the right to ask for another two exemptions from the EC every five years.
The European Commission is unfurling a Europe-wide information campaign on the rights of passengers for all transport means. Thus, passenger rail transport company CFR Calatori is running a national awareness campaign dubbed 'Passenger rights', addressed to EU citizens who travel by train or plane, to raise awareness of their rights and of the standards they should benefit from.
'The campaign is running in the 2010 - 2012 time span in all 27 member states and in Romania it is coordinated by the European Commission Representation and the Foundation ‘Family and Child Protection.' CFR did not invest for this campaign any additional amounts to those earmarked for its usual marketing activity. The posters and information leaflets were provided by the EC Representation and CFR distributes and promotes them in its network,' CFR Calatori director of marketing Adrian Vlaicu declared on Friday at an action for the promotion of the project organized in the Bucharest North Station.
According to Agerpres, the main problems passengers encounter in Romania are related to the duration of the travel, as well as to the services offered to people with disabilities.