Proposition de résolution visant à instaurer une norme européenne uniforme pour la mesure de la ponctualité ferroviaire.
General information ¶
- Authors
- N-VA Inez De Coninck, Peter Dedecker, Wouter Raskin
- Submission date
- July 14, 2016
- Official page
- Visit
- Status
- Adopted
- Requirement
- Simple
- Subjects
- European standard resolution of parliament rail transport length of journey
Voting ¶
- Voted to adopt
- Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR PP
- Abstained from voting
- LE PS | SP DéFI PVDA | PTB VB
Party dissidents ¶
- Olivier Maingain (MR) abstained from voting.
Contact form ¶
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Discussion ¶
Dec. 1, 2016 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)
Full source
President Siegfried Bracke ⚙
The rapporteur, Mrs Lijnen, refers to her written report. Mrs De Coninck has the word in the general discussion.
Inez De Coninck N-VA ⚙
At the same time, we talked about the accuracy of the trains. The decline in accuracy figures over the past month was officially confirmed. I am following the file for my party. My mailbox has indeed been overwhelmed in recent weeks with emails from travellers who are dissatisfied with the accuracy. Accuracy is one of the most important things to make people make the transition to public transport. There should be a reliable alternative to the car, hence the importance of accuracy.
Our party has considered how we can improve accuracy in our country, as there are standards already included in the management contract with the NMBS. It must ⁇ certain objectives. However, we have also seen that in the preparation of the new transport plan – just mentioned – a number of delay minutes is included in the transport plan. Commercial travel speed is another important thing to convince travellers to leave the car at home and choose the train.
We have therefore said that we would like to ask the government to advocate for European accuracy standards so that every railway operator in each Member State calculates accuracy in the same way. It is of course intended to incorporate the best practices that we already use, for example, a weighted accuracy, a variable accuracy, so not only from the beginning and end point, but also between, just to reduce the minutes now included in the transport plan, a little.
Our resolution ultimately contains three requests to the government, very simple, to advocate on the right levels for European accuracy standards, to take the lead in them, and also to open the data on accuracy figures. That last element was added as an amendment, which is a good thing.
I am around my speech here. I would like to thank my colleagues in the committee, because the resolution was adopted with a very broad support and I hope that this will be the case later in the plenary session. I also hope that the introduction of uniform rules of accuracy will benefit the traveller and that our railway operators will be encouraged to want to be the best pupil in the class, in the interest of the traveller.
Marcel Cheron Ecolo ⚙
Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues, I went up to the tribune even though I will be very brief. Mrs. De Coninck submitted an interesting text. I wanted to show my interest. It is also a text that aims to uniformise, at European level, what is called the measurement of punctuality in railways.
We cannot dream of a better time to talk about it, dear colleagues, since we are in December. Our excellent colleagues Mr. Flahaux and Mr. Van den Bergh spoke here recently about the huge problems of punctuality of our trains. The subject is obviously important if we want to promote modal transfer, i.e. the most extensive use of the train.
I will only make a comment, Mrs. De Coninck, because you are the main author of this text. It is clear that we must incorporate the fact that one day, we hope, Europe will define a clear, precise, objective standard of punctuality, but incorporating the elements that will promote the interest of travelers. I explain: the standard must take into account the punctuality on the entire journey, because very often, trains that are late at departure will have caught this delay at the terminus. However, this is a problem for shippers at all points of the line.
The second element is that this punctuality must take into account the number of passengers in the trains. Because having excellent punctuality in empty hours and making sure that at the time when there are the most travellers, that is, during peak hours, the problems of punctuality are missing... We can see well how one can “play” with – you even dared the word “manipulate” – the numbers. This is obviously not what we want.
After how many minutes is a train delayed? We are six minutes away in Belgium, other countries have a standard that is sometimes more demanding, five or four minutes. This is what the text requires: the government, which one day will hear us – even if the health break requested by the minister really takes a lot of time – will have, on the basis of this resolution, to ask the European instances to open this debate. And, at this, I hope that Belgium will defend the elements of punctuality of which I spoke: the number of travellers, the whole line, the number of minutes considered.
It is in the interest of the traveler that we support you in this request for a European standard, although this proposal comes from the majority. You see how constructive we are, how much we measure the difficulty of the majority! I would also like to share the emotion that strikes me when I see our majority colleagues facing the obligation to support a government that is in trouble with the punctuality of trains. It is with pleasure that I support them in this demand for a European standard. And I hope that one day this European standard will also apply in Belgium.
Laurent Devin PS | SP ⚙
Mr. Speaker, yesterday we spent the afternoon together with Mrs. De Coninck, Mr. Cheron and a few others. Mrs. De Coninck, we agreed on several points. You did not have words hard enough to condemn Minister Bellot’s inaction on mobility. And, here too, we can join the N-VA on the finding that is drawn. We can only go in one direction, that of a clear, simple calculation of punctuality, and taking into account the actual situation of the users.
The possibility of being able to easily compare the respect of punctuality from one country to another is also interesting for both the operator and for public authorities and users. I have told you in the committee, we share the constatation but then we must define the same rule for all. The central question remains, therefore, which criteria would be taken into account in the calculation, but they are not defined. This is the very basis of the proposal. However, it does not propose it and remains voluntarily blurred in order to obtain a general consent. But we need to be clear about the criteria that will determine punctuality.
First of all, we find it necessary to have a comparison of the different ways of calculating punctuality in Europe. We also find it necessary to have the opinion of the different associations of defence of users as well as various experts in the matter. Finally, we want the Minister’s position.
For us, it is not conceivable to give a white-seed to the government in this matter, especially given the content of the strategic plan of the former minister Mrs. Galant, which remains today the roadmap of Minister Bellot and the government. I demonstrated yesterday that behind Mr. Bellot, there is always Mrs. Galant.
Without this preparatory work, we cannot support this text that asks the government to continue on the path of an evolution in the calculation of punctuality, without yet putting the necessary tags on it. We will abstain and invite you to continue the work.
For punctuality, we are all witnesses, in some regions more than others. We mentioned the two worst lines in the country: Mons-Soignies-Bruxelles and Binche-La Louvière-Turnhout. A lot of effort must be made in terms of punctuality, when it is not purely and simply about the cancellation of trains!