The planned "Improvement" For passenger, above all, limit the liability of the train
Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries presented the cornerstones of a law to improve the passenger rights in Berlin, to which the EU states agreed in June.
Thereafter, a passenger should receive a deciding if the train has a delay. With a 60-minute delay, it should be reimbursed by 25% of the fare, in a delay of 2 hours the half of the fare. At the request of the passenger, the amount must be paid in cash. So far, the train had been sent in relatively cynically formulated "excuse letters" vouchers for further trips, which should obey the impaired passenger apparently from the permanent change to other means of transport. There are no such payments in local traffic. There, the passengers should wait at least 20 minutes at a delay even before they use a more expensive train.
The railway customers should be at a course of a delay of an hour free of charge. If a supination is required by the train inspection, the train should also take over hotel costs – but only under such complicated and blurred restrictions that the customer bears a significant risk, not to get the costs or only to a far smaller part reimbursed.
Even worse turn are owners of time cards like the BahnCard 100, which can not change the provider due to this investment so easily. You should only "adequately decided "how it is in the bill. Concrete terms are not mentioned. After a court a court found that a strike ban for the lociuhrer prajamated, the minister seemed seemingly grossly granted that the securture should also be paid when the wage is delayed by strikes.
The frequently occurring balancing due to train interruptions because of the successful or tried suicides on the track systems, however, were excluded from the resolution regime. Improvements should be given by unfalls in case of personal injury. The railway undertaking must pay the draft for an advance that covers the immediate economic needs of the embarrassed and his own. If a passenger is killed, the sum to the relatives amounts to at least 21000 euros.
The rights of persons with enrolled mobility should also be initiated by the new law. So all EU countries are committed to the construction barrier-free railwayhofe. For the "enforcement" of the passenger rights, the train should set up artificial complaints, which get three months time for the processing of complaints and the arrival of customers.
The passenger association holds the planned securely regulations – little surprisingly – for insufficient: the regulation to reimburse 25 percent of the fare, the train should be one hour or more to Spat, so the association, a merely a minimal probation. Regulations for delays of more than two hours are not relevant because this case barely preceded. "Important goods to decide customers for half an hour of splitting, "said the chairman of the Interest Association of Bahn Customers Hartmut Buyken.
The association for a long time demanded a coarse compulsory reduction in delays according to the model of the Netherlands. There are rail customers with a 30-minute delay the half and in a single delay reimbursed the entire fare. This regulation applies to near and remote approval. According to calculations of the passenger association, the Dutch Railway uses 0.3% of its turnover for securities regulations.
In comparison, the current scheme is more than modest. Cypries blamed the EU: the current draft was a compromise. Especially the new EU countries had braked from oconomic reasons. The law must now be approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council Cypries expects this procedure to be ended in the middle of the next year. The regulations should then enter into force 24 months after the publication, as early in 2009,.