Passenger Services Group

Passenger Services Group

The Passenger Services Group plays a fundamental management and coordination role for all Passenger activities related to technical and commercial issues, including those areas concerning tariff conditions and technical standards and interfaces for European/international sales and systems.

Beyond these two main branches, included in the Passenger Experts Subgroup (PES), the PSG also addresses the management of MERITS (a unique database for the mutual exchange of data on timetables and stations between RUs) and issues related to tools and assistance for PRMs (Persons with Reduced Mobility – PASSAGE activities). Audit activity for the monitoring of the proper implementation of financial standards by RUs is also supervised through the contribution of the PATRIC (Passenger Accounts and Ticketing Rules Inspection Committee) working group.

Strategic priorities and objectives

Distribution: The PSG is actively involved in the commercial and distribution domains, with the aim of consolidating existing cooperation and further improving current initiatives. Follow-up and implementation of OSDM will be part of the PSG agenda.

Commercialisation of MERITS database: The PSG, through the MERITS Steering
Board, analyses the MERITS evolution and other developments.

New projects will be focused on innovation and multimodality: Continuation of
innovation workshops, and the Air+Rail and Door2Door projects, together with two other projects:

• Next generation revenue sharing
• “Day of travel” to support passengers in the event of delays and disruptions

Global Passenger Forum (GPF): The following PSG priorities have been endorsed by the GPF:

• OSDM implementation
• MERITS enhancement
• Multimodality with urban and air transportation (Door2Door and Air+Rail projects)
• Development of e-ticketing (Electronic Ticket Control Database [ETCD])
• Innovation workshops

Passenger Experts Subgroup

Chair: Luca Mariorenzi, Trenitalia S.p.A.

The Passenger Expert Subgroup is the umbrella group for the PSG’s commercial and technical activities. It facilitates cooperation on international distribution between UIC members and transforms their commercial and regulatory requirements into technical standards and interfaces for international sales and distribution systems.

The activities of the working groups within the PES focus on: ticket layout and security, reservations, NRT (Non Reservation Ticket) and IRT (Integrated Reservation Ticket) tariff models for day and night trains, tariffs between Eastern and Western European countries, and the preparation and maintenance of the related international standards (IRS). The Special Conditions of International Carriage are issued by PES subgroups: Sales Process Group (SPG) and East West Tariff (EWT).

For further information, please visit:

MERITS

Multiple East-West Railway Integrated Timetable Storage
MERITS is a single database containing timetable data for many different railway companies. The data is integrated and reproduced twice a week. MERITS is designed to provide rapid access for each railway company to all the data needed to produce timetables and to operate with a single source of data, thereby doing away with large volumes of multilateral exchanges.

The MERITS timetable data consists of:

• Train schedules and services
• Location database
• MCTs (minimum connection times)

Use of MERITS data
MERITS integrated data is used to provide a broad overview of railway undertakings’ timetable data, including domestic and international trains, for the following purposes:

• Customer information
• Journey planning
• Ticket booking
• Feeding mobile applications

UIC licenses MERITS integrated data to third parties.

For more information and subscription, please visit:

OSDM Platform (formerly PRIFIS)

In 2020, UIC completed the procurement process for the implementation of the PRIFIS replacement tool and the design of the new related specification called Open Sales and Distribution Model (OSDM). The OSDM Platform replaces the former PRIFIS international tariff distribution tool, a shared database containing prices and tariffs for non-reservation tickets. 36 railways upload their prices and tariffs twice a year.

The OSDM Platform is a Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud-based solution. Its architecture enables the ongoing introduction of future UIC services relating to the distribution of tariff and price data. The technical components of the solution are deployed in a fully virtual, enterprise-grade cloud environment.

Publication:

For further information, please visit:

PASSAGE

Passenger Accessibility Solutions Support and Action Group of Experts,
Accessibility Group of Experts
Chair: Paola Negri, Trenitalia S.p.A
UIC PASSAGE Coordinator: Vanessa Perez
UIC PRM ABT Coordinator: David Sarfatti
Meetings: 3 to 4 times a year.

The PASSAGE Group of Experts has become the major reference in railway accessibility in the European railways. Its objectives are to create and safeguard professional exchange among the railways to identify the work to be done at national and transnational level and potential solutions concerning accessibility issues.

The PASSAGE group holds three meetings per year. In these meetings, the results of the activities of the group are reported and the latest news on accessibility from each company is discussed.

During the meetings there is also an update on the performance of the UIC PRM-ABT (Assistance Booking Tool), which was created to provide assistance services to international passengers by connecting twenty PRM call centres.

Publication: Information on best practice has been gathered in UIC IRS 10145, which provides guidance for the provision of accessibility services in railway companies and is periodically updated by members.

Other PASSAGE Activities: UIC Accessibility Day

Person with Reduced Mobility Assistance Booking Tool (UIC PRM ABT)
Chair: David Sarfatti, UIC

EU Regulation 1371/2007 stipulates that assistance for passengers with reduced mobility (PRM) must be provided if requested and notified at least 36 hours prior to departure. In the case of complex journeys on several different networks and countries, this creates a communication challenge as the relevant information must be communicated to the railway staff in charge at origin and departure and at each transfer point. The PRM Assistance Booking Tool is a web-based application that transfer XML messages to facilitate bookings of assistance services for PRM for international journeys throughout Europe. IRS 90918-6 define these XML messages. From the first 7 European countries in 2010, today, 20 Rail call centers use daily the UIC PRM ABT and exchange 3000 international assistance messages per month.

Publication:

PATRIC

Passenger Accounts and Ticketing Rules Inspection Committee
Chair: Pierre Watier, SNCF

The cross-distribution of domestic and international tickets is based on multilateral agreements provided by UIC IRS 90918- 1, IRS 90918-8, IRS 90918-9, UIC Leaflet 301 (accounting) and the Special Conditions of International Carriage (SCIC) for different types of ticket. However, these transactions are not always underpinned by automated data exchange with the vendor system. Therefore, the accounts kept for certain types of ticket are based on the subsequent upload of sales data sets into international accounting systems in accordance with UIC Leaflet 301.

In this context, the carriers trust that the revenue from the sale of tickets to which ticket issuers are entitled will be correctly calculated and allocated to them. Moreover, they rely on the relevant conditions of carriage and tariffs being correctly applied and the agreed measures on revenue securing being duly implemented. To ensure that the revenue resulting from such sale is being correctly apportioned, intermittent audits are carried out by the PATRIC Steering Board in accordance with the regulatory framework set out in UIC Leaflet 120. These audits must take account of the evolving competitive environment in their execution.

Publication:

Relationships with other bodies

The PSG is actively working with the European Union Agency for Railways (EUAR) for the synchronisation of UIC IRS with EUAR TAP-TSI Technical Documents as part of the UIC - EUAR (European Union Agency for Railways) Technical Agreement.

• OSJD: joint management of OSJD/UIC IRSs and leaflets
• PSG also works closely with CER concerning TAP-TSI (Telematics Applications for Passenger-Technical Specification for interoperability) regulations and relations with the European Union Agency for Railways
• CIT is also a partner to highlight and solve legal issues like ticket layout, GDPR, Passenger Claims conference, PRR (Passenger Rights and regulations), etc.
• Multimodality is a core objective of PSG so there is close cooperation with UITP, IATA (International Air Transport Association) and STA for the intermodal projects Door2Door and Air+Rail