Group tourism by coach

EU PUBLIC-PRIVATE SMART MOVE HIGH LEVEL GROUP Concluding public event, European Parliament, 15 May 2013 Group tourism by coach Yves Mannaerts, HLG rapporteur & Vice President of the IRU Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues, I have the honour and the pleasure to briefly summarise for you the High Level Group discussion and views on group tourism by coach, probably the most forgotten of all collective passenger transport modes, which we hope is finally receiving today its official “lettre de noblesse” as a fully fledged member of the collective transport family – recognised as such by policy decision makers at European, national and, importantly, local level.

Despite the fact that it is a very important business and job creator in itself, group tourism by coach has long suffered from a lack of recognition, Ladies and Gentlemen, which has severely impacted its capacity to contribute to sustainable tourism and travel of European citizens and Europe’s visitors.

The Smart Move High Level Group made a first bold step to radically change this situation, to unlock the potential of this safe, green – the greenest I should say -, affordable, accessible and comfortable door-to-door way to travel and enjoy Europe’s unique historical, cultural, artistic, industrial and sport’s heritage, whilst at the same time reducing congestion, since a coach replaces up to 30 cars on our roads and streets.

Allow me also to boldly emphasise the fact that the proposed EU target of doubling the number of users, including the number of group tourists by coach, is both ambitious and realistic. It can be reached if the right business-friendly policies, legislation and incentives are put in place. We have examples of cities in Europe which, thanks to their long term business-friendly and customer-oriented policy, have already succeeded in doubling the number of group visitors by coach.

The High Level Group has also proposed a range of concrete actions in order to boost this great way of discovering and enjoying Europe. Let me mention a selection of those: 

Work out innovative ideas on safe, green, accessible and customer-friendly bus and coach vehicles of the future. Start by increasing the maximum weight of twoaxle coaches.

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Enable a multilingual European single window on access restrictions and low emission zones in European cities, and guidelines for those cities introducing such restrictions.

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Clearly prioritise collective transport, including visiting touring coaches within sustainable urban mobility plans, over the use of the private car.

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Work towards a fiscal system that would incentivise the use of greener transport solutions and services, whilst preventing distortions of competition within the intermodal mobility and transport chain. The ultimate long-term objective should be to obtain support for the introduction of a “0 rate” VAT for all collective land transport modes, including coach travel, to enable the public transport chain to compete successfully with the private car.

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Address the specific requirements of bus and coach businesses and their customers, to avoid inappropriate “one size fits all” rules in the regulatory, social (driving and rest time rules), passenger rights, and technical fields. Establish an enlarged public-private stakeholders’ platform to identify legislative bottlenecks and propose solutions.

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Develop, through public-private partnership, proposals to reduce administrative formalities and documentation, such as, for instance, the journey form for occasional transport.

I have taken out only a selection of the High Level Group recommendations, Ladies and Gentlemen, which in many cases apply also to partner modes and to cities, and which will ultimately bring incentives and advantages for all.

Allow me now to put aside for a moment my “hat” as a High Level Group rapporteur, and conclude as a Vice President of the IRU. For us, the European coach travel and tourism business, the genuine merit of the Smart Move High Level Group is that it has, for the first time, taken group tourism by coach out of political anonymity, and placed it on an equal footing with the other, traditional public transport modes.

This is the principle, the red line if you wish, we will be defending in the future, when concrete proposals will be put on the table – some of them hopefully from the industry itself, groups of stakeholders, or even the future Citizens Mobility Forum – such as on city access restrictions, on taxation, on sustainable mobility planning, on weights and dimensions and the coach of the future, and on specific driving and rest time rules for buses and coaches.

You can count on the IRU to remain the traditional pro-active, trustworthy and cooperative partner, ready and willing to work together with its public and private partners, to create added value for our industry, for European citizens and for society as whole.

I thank you for your attention. ***