Rail ticketing

Background

This EESC opinion assesses the proposal on Rail ticketing which was unveiled by the European Commission in May 2026. This proposal, together with a proposal on Multimodal booking and on Protection of passengers with single tickets, is part of the so-called Passenger Package.

The Commission intends to establish a common framework for the distribution of rail products, with the aim of making rail travel easier to find, compare and purchase across the European Union. The objective is to improve the functioning of the internal market for rail passenger services and promote fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory commercial agreements between railway service providers and online ticketing service providers.

By making access to rail products better and encouraging the availability of single tickets covering journeys operated by different railway undertakings, the proposal aims to increase competition in the rail ticketing market and offer passengers greater choice when purchasing rail travel.

Key points

The EESC:

• calls for a single, interoperable European rail ticketing framework to overcome fragmentation and enable seamless travel across operators and borders; 
• calls for safeguards against dominant digital platforms, including excessive commissions, discriminatory rankings and algorithmic self-preferencing; 
• recommends a European “fair value-sharing” principle, ensuring that ticketing revenues contribute fairly to the European rail ecosystem, sustainable services and investment; 
• stresses that digitalisation must not exclude passengers, ensuring accessible non-digital ticketing, equal online/offline pricing and coverage of rural and peripheral regions; 
• recommends EU-level rail ticketing governance, involving operators, infrastructure managers, ticket vendors, consumers, passengers, SMEs and social partners, with strong cybersecurity and regular “reality checks.”

Additional information

Section: Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society (TEN)

Opinion number: TEN/860

Opinion type: Mandatory

Rapporteur: Dumitru Fornea (Group II - Romania)

Date of adoption by section: 4 September 2026

Result of the vote: 76 in favour, 0 against, 0 abstentions

Date of adoption in plenary: 23-24 September 2026

Result of the vote: 165 in favour, 1 against, 3 abstentions

Contact

Marco Pezzani

Press Officer

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E-mail: marco.pezzani@eesc.europa.eu 

Aleksandra Sarman Grilc

Administrator

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E-mail: aleksandra.sarmangrilc@eesc.europa.eu