David Morgan - Railway Magazine, June 2009 issue.

Not entirely sure if this is under the correct heading, but anyway,

He states, and I quote:- "Weekend travel in the UK is fraught with difficulties, but that can be part of the challenge. So why is this relevant to heritage railways? Well, a European Union directive, if enacted, will require train operators to pay penal costs of compensation to passengers travelling over 50 kilometers or more should the train be more than 30 minutes late. I have not yet seen the directive yet but I am told that the operator is liable regardless of blame and has no right of recovery against the third party who caused the delay. While no heritage railway (at present) exceeds 50 kilometers,most steam charters over the main line do."

Does anyone know the reference number of this proposed directive?

At this stage I 'll just confine myself to saying, and on the assumption that it will emerge into law, that if I was a railway tour operator I'd seriously be considering a cessation of such a business.

 

Richard

The operating TOC would pick that up.

The charterer is not the operator - although he does pay the overall bill

 

Frank, that may be so, but would the TOC want to risk being in the position of having to pick it up unnecessarily?

 

My initial reaction is that this might be something that drops out of the opening up of EU railways to increased cross-border competition. But I don't know that to be the case and it's far too late to go looking for it... :smt015

 

Is this going to hit TOCs who dump their pax onto buses at weekends? Sauce for the goose ...

John

 

It all depends on how you quantify late, of course.

A revised timetable accounting for blockades and bustitution would not be "late" even if you were two hours longer than a normal journey en route, but on time as per the revised schedule.

Equally - continental railways haven't adopted the barmy British NR / TOCs model.

On the continent the industry operator would pick up the tab - here NR would indemnify itself against claims in its access contracts, sit back, and laugh!

 

I've moved this whole thread into the "Railway Magazine" forum.

Richard

 

Hi I can't find Railway Magazine forum can someone please point me in the right direction.


Thanks

 

73129 - this is still the right place for posting. But the discussion is now listed in the RM forum.

If you want to find the other threads in this forum, click on this link:
http://railways.national-preservation.com/viewforum.php?f=96
or use the "Board Index" at the top of this page, and then scroll to the bottom where you'll find the Media Corner section. This has forums for Railway Magazine, Steam Railway, Heritage Railway and the NRM. Hope this helps.

Richard

 

Richard, you fell for that one hook line and sinker!