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 two-

axle coaches.

Enable a multilingual European single window on access restrictions and low

emission zones in European cities, and guidelines for those cities introducing such

restrictions.

Clearly prioritise collective transport, including visiting touring coaches within

sustainable urban mobility plans, over the use of the private car.

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.

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.

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.

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