The Meeting of the Rail Passenger Rights Ombudsman with Railway Operators
Ms. Joanna Marcinkowska, Rail Passenger Rights Ombudsman, and Mr. Radosław Pacewicz, Vice President of the Office of Rail Transport, met in the ORT office with representatives of the railway market operators. The objective of the meeting was to discuss the first period in operation of the Ombudsman and call attention to the most frequently repeated cases of complaints.
Since February 2017, the Rail Passenger Rights Ombudsman has been helping passengers in resolving disputes with carriers, railway station managers, and infrastructure managers. During this time, 175 persons have asked for help, and conciliatory proceedings have been initiated in 102 cases.
The meeting’s hosts thanked the operators for their pro-active participation in the proceedings and the demonstrated desire to finalise disputes with compromises. In more than half of the cases, the disputes were successfully resolved by mediation; both the passenger and the company to which the complaint pertained accepted conciliatory resolution.
An analysis of repetitive problems which passengers most frequently direct to the Ombudsman accounted for an important element of the meeting. These include appeals from calls for payment, claims pertaining to refunds of costs arising from delay or cancellation of a train and reimbursement of amounts due for unused tickets. The Ombudsman asked representatives of the companies to treat each passenger’s request individually, looking for a way to reach consensus.
Ms. Joanna Marcinkowska also highlighted the significance of the manner in which a complaint was processed in building the relationship between a company and the passenger and the negative consequences of escalation of a conflict. She also provided positive examples of the issues in which an open approach to compromise had had a positive impact on the company’s image.
The participants also discussed further cooperation, including in the area of promotion of information on the rights to which passengers are entitled and an option to participate in conciliatory proceedings.