On 28 September 2017, CIT in collaboration with UIC held their yearly Conference of Passenger Claims Departments in Frankfurt am Main, at the kind invitation of Deutsche Bahn.
The conference was led by Ms Carmen Filipescu, International Affairs Director at Regiotrans and President of the CIV Committee.
The various topical themes discussed were addressed to the claims, sales and legal departments of their members.
The first presentation of the day was given by Ms Isabelle Saintilan, Legal Counsel for Passengers Matters at SNCF Voyages. She presented the latest developments on the Passengers’ Rights Regulation (PRR). The proposal for a recast of the PRR having been published on 27 September 2017, Ms Saintilan explained the key points and most important changes resulting from that revision, like the introduction of a force majeure clause, but also the question of the continuation of the journey of passengers in case of delay and cancellation and the increased obligation of information for the railway undertakings in particular with regard to disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility.
Mr Jan Svensson, Passenger Traffic Expert at CIT, continued with a presentation of CIT’s latest products. He presented the modifications of the GCC-CIV/PRR, the RID Notice and the RID Info-Table, which will all come into effect on 1 October 2017. He also discussed the question of data protection. Mr Svensson ended his presentation by talking about the changes we can expect for 2018, like the revision of the PRR.
Ms Sandra Dobler, Legal Adviser at the CIT, then presented the best solutions to ensure the continuation of passenger journey, in case of delay and cancellation of services.
Dr Daniel Schreiber, Leiter Entwicklung Kundenschnittstellen at DB, explained afterwards the Conceptual development of DB customer services and the main focus points in the operational work of the service centre for passenger rights.
Mr Kris Vierstraete, Teamleader of the Customer Relations at SNCB, presented the internal processes for complaints handling at SNCB.
Two workshops then took place, one held by Mr Oliver Hirschfeld, Legal Counsel and Mediator in the Recht Personenverkehr und Einkauf at DB and Mr Bjarne Lindberg Bak, Deputy Director Int. Affairs at DSB, the other by Ms Isabelle Saintilan and Mr Kris Vierstraete. The participants addressed different cases, which gave them the opportunity to exchange their views and to note the national legal particularities of each country.
After that, Mr Martin Kojinkov, Financial Controller of Eurail Group, gave a presentation on a difficult subject: how to handle the claims of delay compensation for rail pass holders (Eurail and Inter Rail Passes).
A second workshop ended the conference. The themes discussed were rail passes and the question of assistance, delay compensation and reservations connected to rail passes.
Marc Guigon, UIC Senior Advisor for Passenger Transport, concluded this conference.
The conference was a great success, with 61 participants from railway undertakings across Europe. This allowed fruitful exchanges between the different participants.
The next conference will take place on 20 September 2018. The location has yet to be determined.
A report of the conference will be published in the CIT-Info 3/2017. More information can be found on the website of the CIT: www.cit-rail.org
