Railway Regulatory Authority: Ex officio inquiry into train stoppages

Following the trials and tribulations of passengers due to the mid-route stoppage of two Hellenic Train SA trains and the consequent problems created on the railway network, the Railway Regulatory Authority announced the immediate initiation of an ex officio investigation, during which all passenger complaints regarding the two events will be scrutinized.

As emphasized, the conduct of the ex officio investigation will proceed on two levels.

First: In the investigation of suspected violations of the Railway Company and the Infrastructure Manager in matters of safety.
Second: In matters related to the application of the European Regulation on the rights of passengers.

Passenger rights

According to European Regulation 1371/07, Railway Companies must apply the following:

Article 8. Travel information: The company must provide timely and valid information before and during the trip, for any activity or extraordinary event that may interrupt or delay the transport service to which it is obliged to the respective passenger.

Article 16. Refund and rerouting: If the delay in arrival at the final destination exceeds 60 minutes, passengers have the right to:

Refund of the fee in full for the part or parts of the trip that did not take place.
Continuation of the journey or re-routing, under comparable conditions of transport, to the final destination and at the earliest opportunity or at a later date at the option of the passenger,

Article 17 Fare compensation: the passenger can request compensation for delays. In particular:

25% of the fee for a delay of 60 to 119 minutes
50% of the fee for a delay of 120 minutes or more.
Article 18 Assistance: In case of delay in arrival or departure, passengers must be informed about the situation, as well as notified by the Railway company, both the estimated time of departure and the estimated time of arrival.

Also, in the event of a delay exceeding 60 minutes, the respective Company must offer free of charge:

Meals and refreshments depending on the waiting time

Hotel or other accommodation and transport between the railway station and the place of accommodation

As long as the train is stopped outside the station, the railway undertaking takes care of the timely and safe transfer of passengers from the train to the railway station

It must take care and address the needs of disabled people and people with reduced mobility as well as the persons accompanying them.

The statement of the president of Railway Regulatory Authority

The president of the Railway Regulatory Authority, Ioanna Tsiaparikou, stated on the issue that “any action or event that affects the right of passengers to move freely, will be dealt with promptly, effectively and without any tolerance. Passengers do not only have obligations, they have clear and unequivocal rights, the violation of which leads to sanctions and fines, which depending on the nature, seriousness and duration of the violation, can amount to 1 million euros, for each violation found.”

“The Railway Regulatory Authority, in today’s announcement, records the obligations of the Railway Company towards the passengers in the cases of incidents like yesterday’s and will immediately proceed to investigate them, through the ex officio investigation, in order to establish whether all the aforementioned obligations were correctly implemented by the railway company, as they are statutory rights of passengers. In the case of proven non-compliance with them, the Authority must proceed with the sanctions mentioned above”, she added.