Rail sector Ticketing Roadmap delivers further progress for European passengers
European railways are continuing their work to make international rail journeys easier to plan, book and complete. Guided by the CER Ticketing Roadmap, the sector is advancing towards more accessible, interoperable and passenger-friendly ticketing across Europe. This progress is confirmed by the 8th Implementation Monitoring Report of the CER Ticketing Roadmap, adopted by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) General Assembly in Berlin in September 2026.
Delivering seamless international rail journeys depends on essential but largely unseen technical work to put the necessary digital infrastructure and commercial mechanisms in place. Since 2021, the CER Ticketing Roadmap has brought railway companies together around common European standards, shared solutions and coordinated implementation to proactively build a modern, user-friendly ticketing offer. This practical groundwork is already making cross-border rail travel easier for travellers across Europe.
The latest Roadmap implementation monitoring shows that this coordinated work is continuing to deliver tangible improvements across the passenger journey:
- Enhanced journey planning, supported by increasingly comprehensive and frequent exchange of European timetable data through the UIC MERITS database.
- More time to plan and book, through longer booking horizons, i.e. earlier availability of tickets for sale.
- Growing ticket availability across sales channels, with several thousand additional connections offered in 2025 and 2026 using the Open Sales and Distribution Model (OSDM).
- Easier use of digital tickets across borders, supported by interoperable ticket-control solutions. The majority of international ticketing is now routed through a centralised electronic ticket control database (eTCD) with further implementation ongoing.
- Better support following missed connections, through broader implementation and communication of the 2019 CIT Agreement on Journey Continuation, a multilateral agreement between European railway operators designed to help passengers reach their final destination when a delay or cancellation causes them to miss a booked connecting train, covering over 90% of international European passenger traffic.
Together, these developments strengthen a European ticketing framework built on common standards and interoperable solutions, while laying a strong foundation for the Roadmap’s next phase towards 2030.
The priority now is to extend these benefits to more passengers, journeys and sales channels. Further work will focus on expanding OSDM-enabled connections, real-time information exchange and booking horizons through continued cooperation between railway undertakings.
At the same time, the Roadmap’s 2026–2030 phase will seek to build on this progress, expanding the same approach to multimodal, rail-air-road, journey planning and ticketing, wider OSDM deployment, improved travel information and stronger passenger support throughout the journey.
The objective remains practical and passenger-focused: to make European journeys easier to find, easier to buy, easier to use and better supported from origin to destination.
CER Executive Director Alberto Mazzola said: “The CER Ticketing Roadmap is about delivery. European railways are turning common standards and cooperation into practical improvements for passengers: more journeys available for sale, earlier booking, interoperable digital tickets and better support when connections are missed. Our priority now is to extend these benefits further across Europe. EU policy should support and accelerate this progress by building on the standards, systems and investments that are already delivering.”
The CER Ticketing Roadmap – 8th Implementation Monitoring Report Spring 2026 is available here.
Download below the press release.