Places are still available for the European Passenger Federation Conference(EPF). The conference will be held in the Maastricht City Hall on 5th and 6th June. Any member of The European Rail Campaign(UK) is entitled to pay the reduced EPF member fee of 100 Euros.

See here the link with details about the conference:https://www.epfconference.eu/

 The “Reseau European en Train” https://reseauentrain.eu/?p=2434 and “European Rail Campaign (UK)” both promote rail as the preferred means of sustainable transport. However, this does not stop at transport alone but also considers its relationship with the territories (its effects on daily life, development and tourism in the regions served) and with other modes of transport. In this case, this statement focuses on the interaction between trains and passenger ships.

Definition and context – a few figures:

 This statement focuses on regular passenger transport by ferry, which provide regular passenger services by sea (more rarely by river), but excluding tourist cruise ships.

In the EU, these services carried 220 million passengers in 2024, and in the United Kingdom, 53 million passengers (38 million domestic and 15 million international.) In the UK, the main origin or destination country is (by far) France, followed by Ireland and the Netherlands. 

 Compared to the countless daily journeys made by train and especially by car, and relative to the population (450 million inhabitants for the EU, 68 million for the United Kingdom), these figures remain modest, as they mean that an inhabitant only takes the ferry once every two years on average. Nevertheless, this mode of transport is of vital importance for accessing a number of island territories, both for tourism and for the daily lives of residents. In the EU, the three countries with the most boat journeys, namely Italy, Greece and Denmark, which have an extensive network of islands that are connected by ferry. In the British Isles, ferries play the same role: they connect England not only to continental Europe and Ireland, but also to other British islands, notably the Isle of Wight, opposite Portsmouth, which has the highest volume of domestic traffic.

Relevance and sustainability of passenger transport by boat:

Furthermore, transport by boat is not easily replaceable.Sea crossings could only be replaced by either flying or building costly tunnels or bridges that are not without environmental damage, such as the Fehmarn Tunnel, currently under construction between Germany and Denmark. If these structures include a road link, which, with the exception of the Channel Tunnel, is always the case, they encourage an increase in road traffic.

 According to the European Environment Agency, travelling by sea emits an average of 61 grams of greenhouse gases per passenger-kilometre, which is more than the train (33 g) but much less than the coach, the private car and almost three times less than the airplane (80, 143 and 160 g respectively). According to these figures, boats are the means of transport with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions apart from trains. This can be accounted for by their low speed and resistance to forward movement offered by water.

Furthermore, due to their slower speed, boat journeys avoid the frenzy of air travel. In the years before Covid, between 2010 and 2019, passenger journeys by ferry fell in the United Kingdom and rose very moderately (by around 5%) in the European Union, thus avoiding the phenomenon of hyper growth in air travel. Ferries can therefore contribute to a form of peaceful travel, or slow tourism. Its use can therefore be encouraged if it is at the expense of air travel and also complements rail or other sustainable modes of transport.

It should be possible to travel on foot on all ferry routes:

 However, in Dover, operators seem to increasingly consider it as a mode of transport integrated with the car. Among the ferry operators departing from and arriving at this port, neither DFDS nor Irish Ferries offer the possibility of boarding for foot passengers.  Only P&O does this for only 2-3 crossings per day with excessive check-in and dis-embarkation times. This is a particularly important point, as Dover handled nine million passengers in 2024, representing the majority of boat crossings between the UK and continental Europe. Furthermore, it is also impossible for pedestrians or cyclists to use the Channel Tunnel shuttle services.

 It is paradoxical to discourage walking or cycling in this way, as the energy footprint of a foot passenger is much lower than that of a passenger with a car, due to the weight of the latter. The emission figures given above do not specify whether they take into account the weight of the car or that of the passenger alone, but it is clear that they differ strongly, probably by a factor of one to fifteen.

 Secondly pedestrian access to ferries should encourage intermodality with other public transport, such as bus and train. In Dover, as in Calais, the stations are far from the embarkation points, which significantly complicates intermodality between boat and train. In both Dover and Calais, the rail links between the Maritime/Marine stations and the Ville/Priory stations were closed in 1995, the year after the Eurostar high-speed service was launched. The connection with Calais Ville station is provided by a shuttle bus service, which is fairly frequent and runs during the daytime on Mondays to Saturdays. There is no connecting bus service between Dover Eastern Docks and Dover Priory rail station in the town.

The Reseau European en Train and European Rail Campaign UK are therefore calling on:

(1) All ferry companies to accept foot passengers and cyclists on all crossings between Dover, Calais and Dunkirk.

(2) For the local transport authorities to encourage proper bus connections between the ports and the rail stations.

(3) For the train operators on both sides of the channel to offer through “Rail/Sea/Rail ticketing between stations in their regions.

(4) And, in the longer term, to re-open rail passenger services between Calais Ville, Dover Priory and the ferry terminals.

For further details please see : https://www.railwaygazette.com/uk/study-finds-international-passenger-capacity-at-london-st-pancras-could-be-doubled/68004.article

AND THEN COULD THERE NOW BE SOME COMPETITION WITH EUROSTAR ?

There was a very interesting session of “The House of Commons All-Party Parliamentary Rail Group on the 19th November. Getlink (the owners of the Channel Tunnel) suggested there were now 4 good reasons why new train operators could start running passenger trains through the tunnel. Virgin and the Evolyn consortium now seem be the most promising candidates for this market.

We thoroughly recommend that you click on this link, as there is a lot more information – https://www.railwaygazette.com/passenger/turning-point-reached-for-potential-new-channel-tunnel-train-operators/67863.article

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen wants Europeans to have easier international train travel. In her new term, it will be possible to travel across several countries with a single train ticket, she promised at her re-election.

“Cross-border rail travel is still too difficult for many residents,” Von der Leyen wrote in her political policy guidelines 2024-2029, a document she sent to the European Parliament on the occasion of her re-election. In the document, the Commission president points out that a separate ticket is now required for each rail operator. There is also no protection for passengers if trains are late, break down or if they miss a connection.

Climate targets

The barriers to international rail transport are driving the EU’s climate goals into the wheels, the Brussels top woman believes. “To meet those targets, we need to make it easier for residents to switch to more sustainable options.” There should therefore be a booking system that allows travellers to buy a single ticket across Europe. This should also better define their rights, Von der Leyen said.

This is not the first time Von der Leyen has made plans to streamline international rail transport. Back in 2020, she also presented plans for a new ticketing system. However, that stalled, partly because the proposal did not pass quality control.

Re-election

Ursula von der Leyen was elected for her second term as Commission president last month. In the European Parliament, a majority of 401 MEPs backed the re-election. There were 284 dissenting votes and 22 invalid votes. Von der Leyen has headed the European Commission since 2019.

UPDATE ON RAIL/SEA BUS LINK AT DIEPPE:

We can now confirm that this useful link to the station connects with all sailings between Newhaven and Dieppe.

See here for further details

https://lewesrail.org.uk/news/newhaven-dieppe-ferry-bus-link-in-dieppe-reinstated/

On this route to mainland Europe Stena Line run both a day and a night crossing 7 days a week 365 days a year. It is also one of the few routes that is rail connected at both ports. It has become a little easier with the opening of the light rail (or metro) extension to Hoek van Holland Strand and the brand new through station at Hoek van Holland Haven.

On April 5th our correspondent disembarked from the night ferry at 08.05 and by 09.15 was on an Inter City train from Rotterdam heading towards Brussels.

Before you had a 500-meter trek to a temporary wooden platform, whereas now it is only 30 meters from the ferry terminal to the new station. A notice (only in Dutch) directs you there where you buy your RET chip card for the metro from a machine if you have not already ordered it online. 

On a weekday, the metro trains are busy at this time of the morning, with people travelling into Rotterdam for work. If you know what you are doing, you can quickly change at Schiedam Centrum to catch a train up the coast to The Hague and Amsterdam or catch a frequent train into Rotterdam Centraal and continue east or south. If your final destination is Utrecht or Germany, you also have the option of continuing on the metro line to the modern suburb of Alexander and changing there to an Inter-City train.

See: https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/12/28/flight-free-travel-europes-new-long-distance-train-routes-for-2022

And see also: https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/07/22/meet-the-man-battling-to-fix-europe-s-trains-via-an-epic-40-day-journey

Thanks to rail campaigners all over Europe there is finally some hope on the horizon. Back in October, a formal agreement was announced by all main train operators across Europe that they will adapt their ticketing systems by 2025, so that “passengers will have a seamless user experience when searching, selecting, buying and using rail services”. For further details see: https://www.railtech.com/policy/2022/10/11/cer-and-uic-in-2025-passengers-will-have-a-seamless-user-experience-buying-rail-services/

Fifteen railway companies, including Deutsche Bahn, Renfe, SNCF, Trenitalia and ÖBB, have recently agreed to offer rail passengers who miss their connecting international train due to a delay, a place on the next possible train at no additional cost. This was announced in a press release by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) last October. We cannot understand why Eurostar and Thalys have not signed up to this sensible agreement. For further details see: https://www.railtech.com/all/2022/10/24/railways-agree-on-follow-up-journey-without-extra-costs-in-case-of-missed-connection/

They also concluded that people wanted to take the train to a greater range of destinations than are possible at the moment, whether for leisure or business purposes. Bordeaux, Frankfurt and Prague were suggested as destinations that can be easily reached from London using HS1 and the High Speed Network across Europe. For further information see a recent report in The Global Railway Review https://www.globalrailwayreview.com/news/134092/poll-shows-81-per-cent-of-passengers-want-more-rail-routes-opened-to-europe/?utm_source=En

The special report from HS1 Ltd published in Rail 938 could be seen as a load of “Greenwash”. They publish a lot of sustainability statistics for 2020-21 which look good on paper but do nothing for the modal shift they claim to want to achieve. For example, the 14% reduction in electricity use is hardly surprising given the reduced number of Eurostar and Javelin trains using the line due to the Covid pandemic. While they are clearly doing a lot of charitable work with other organizations, none of this is likely to result in making full use of this low-carbon gateway from the UK to Europe.

 While they say they want to achieve a modal shift, they fail to tell us how they plan to do this. They say that they can “make the modal shift happen right now, but we just need some entrepreneurial thinking around the sides”. We find it extraordinary that a private company lacks the relevant “entrpreneurial thinking” needed to produce a proper plan for full use of HS1.

 One of the key issues which they fail to mention is the high level of track access charges for both HS1 and the Channel Tunnel. These charges are far higher than most of the high speed lines across Europe and act as a deterrent for any new train operators. This also means that Eurostar finds it harder to compete against the airlines and the private car.

 If we are to achieve a real modal shift and make full use of this asset, track access charges must be reduced. This may require UK Government intervention for HS1. It would also require joint UK/French Government intervention for the Channel Tunnel. This is surely not too much to ask when the UK is chairing COP 26 in November and we are facing a climate emergency.

BUT – Since this letter was published there might be some light on the horizon ! RENFE the Spanish state train company have announced their interest in running a London-Paris service in competition with Eurostar.