EUROPEAN PASSENGERS’ FEDERATION AND “NEW EUROSTAR”
For more than a decade, AERA has been an associate member of the European Passengers’ Federation which brings together public transport users’organisations and related bodies in 20 different European countries. EPF is widely recognised as a well-informed independent voice of rail customers, which has regular dialogue with political and transport professionals and decision-makers. In this context we are pleased that EPF representatives from the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany met senior managers of Eurostar and Thalys in Brussels on January 13 th . These two operators are in the process of merging and are sometimes currently referred to us “New Eurostar”.
AERA’s secretary has taken part in an EPF zoom call to draw up the agenda for the meeting. Items for discussion will range over fares and competitiveness, developing onward travel opportunities, border controls, passenger rights and complaint handling. We hope to publish a report of the meeting on this website in due course. It is intended that this top-level meeting will be an annual event, and that specialist groups may also meet (in person or virtually) in between annual meetings to study specific issues.
AERA PROGRAMME
The Association of European Rail Agents meets six times a year in person – normally in Central London – but for most of our meetings it is also possible to participate via Zoom. Our AGMs take place in late January, and these can be elsewhere in the British Isles, or even in Europe.
For most meetings we also have a guest speaker bringing us rail industry updates.
Forthcoming meetings: September 26 (Thursday) Speaker: Mark Smith “The Man in Seat 61”
November 28 (Thursday) A Belgian Day! Speakers: Bart Geeroms, Head of Sales at SNCB International; and Brecht Vanhee, Benerail;
and Lisa Thomas (Visit Flanders)
EUROPEAN YEAR OF RAIL?
2021 was European Year of Rail – though British readers may be forgiven for not knowing, since the fact has been barely publicised in the UK.
It is regrettable that the UK Government has failed to support this initiative during the same year that it jointly hosted the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.
BY TRAIN TO GLASGOW?
Trains Are a Safe Way To Travel
Travel with a Rail Pass: How customer-friendly are they?
How customer-friendly are Rail Passes? What are the experiences of customers and how can these be improved? Find out more in our report on Rail Passes!
Click here to read more!
Trip to Germany
AERA Members were excited to embark on a festive trip to Germany on 6th December, 2018 – to an old favourite – Cologne. We travelled by Eurostar from St Pancras to Brussels, and hopped on to an ICE straight to the heart of Cologne – just a stone’s throw away from its…
Read more about our annual trip to Germany here.