Want to see Europe by train? New single-ticket rules make it simpler for tourists

The headache of cross-border rail travel in Europe is nearing an end, as sweeping new reforms simplify how travellers book and navigate the continent's tracks.

Passengers on the European rail network have been forced to play a high-stakes game of ticket roulette for decades.

Under the current rules, a delay on a German train may leave a traveller stranded on a French platform with a worthless ticket and no legal protection.

But the European Commission (EC) decided the era of fragmented ticketing services has come to an end, mandating new rules for seamless travel.

The University of Sydney Business School's Professor Rico Merkert said that while the IT infrastructure will take time to roll out, the goal is to replicate the aviation sector's inventory data sharing.

"To some extent it replicates what's happening in the aviation sector where you can combine certain services that are operated by different airlines through 'code sharing'," the transport expert said.

Travellers will be able to book multi-leg trips using a range of train providers, but will no longer be forced to book each connection individually.

The reform comes as passengers reported that they regularly encountered obstacles when combining different transport services across one trip.

Passengers will now be able to find, compare and purchase services combined from different rail operators into one single ticket, the Commission said.

These tickets can be bought in one transaction on a ticketing platform of their choice, either an independent platform, or the rail operator's ticketing service.

There are also new obligations for ticketing platforms and operators to ensure "fair access to selling tickets and the neutral presentation of travel options", the Commission said.

"Platforms will be required to display offers in a neutral way, including sorting by greenhouse gas emissions where feasible," it said.

Under current rules, passengers have little to no protection if delayed on a trip booked through multiple, disconnected rail providers.

But with the new rules, passengers with a single ticket will benefit from full passenger rights protection. This includes assistance, rerouting, reimbursement and compensation.

"When you have this one ticket and something happens where you miss a connection, then it's the obligation of the operator to either present you with an alternative or to compensate you for the time you're losing or the expenses that you would incur," Professor Merkert said.

Despite potential challenges in settling compensation claims between rail companies, Professor Merkert expects that liability will rest with the operator at fault, unless the delay was outside the company's control.

A precedent for this system already exists in the United Kingdom (UK), the transport expert said.

Various UK rail companies are required to settle claims among themselves by determining which specific operator was responsible for a service failure, he said.

Australians already have access to the Eurail Pass, when navigating the rail systems of Europe.

This all-in-one pass allows travellers to hop on and off rail services across 33 European countries, allowing them to board trains across various national operators without buying individual tickets for every leg.

Though the proposals were adopted on May 13, the Commission warns that the changes will take some time to implement.

"The organisation of train systems in Europe is quite different across the different Member States," Professor Merkert said.

"Some have the infrastructure organised within the same company as the train operators," he said.

The Commission said Member States were expected to speed up implementation of the Intelligent Transport Systems Directive's rules on sharing multimodal transport data on national access points, to develop seamless booking and ticketing systems.

For Australian travellers, who have been navigating the European train system with a mix of Eurail passes and luck, the promise of a protected ticket offers peace of mind.