After years of being accused of riding the Brussels gravy train, members of
the European parliament are about to step aboard a real one.
A Eurocrats-only express service will be launched next month to ferry MEPs and
officials in luxury at 186mph between one European parliament in Brussels
and the other in Strasbourg. The buffet car will, of course, be fully
stocked.
The Strasbourg Express will leave Brussels for the first time at 9.57am on
Monday, July 7. Each return journey will cost the taxpayer about £158,000,
but the fare-paying public will be banned. MEPs will pay £170 for a return
ticket, but will then be reimbursed.
“The public will not be able to buy tickets or use this train,” said Thalys,
the high-speed train operator that will run the service.
While ordinary passengers make do with a rickety scheduled service known as
“the cattle truck”, which has no refreshments, Eurocrats can enhance the
enjoyment of their journey with a choice of fine French, Australian and
Chilean wines.
Whether gravy will actually be served is a moot point, but along with popular
Belgian beers, savoury snacks will be on offer.
Every month, when the European parliament moves to Strasbourg, the “train of
shame” will leave Brussels on a Monday, returning the following Thursday,
with up to 377 MEPs and officials travelling each way in three spacious
carriages.
It is widely seen in Brussels as a gimmick to boost the French, whose
insistence on maintaining the second parliament in Strasbourg makes such
journeys necessary in the first place.
The service will begin in the first week of France’s European Union presidency
and is intended to symbolise a greener and more pleasurable way of doing
business while President Nicolas Sarkozy is in charge.
Eurocrats have been ordered to take the train rather than one of two 90-minute
flights that are usually laid on for the same commute at a slightly higher
cost of £162,000 a month.
Some officials are looking on the bright side. “At least there’ll be a buffet
car in this one. You can’t even buy water on the current train. You
wouldn’t transport animals in it,” said one.
Buffet car or not, the staff unions are complaining that members will be
forced to return to Brussels from weekend breaks on Sunday evenings instead
of Monday mornings so that they can be ready to board.
Worse still, lunch may have to be curtailed. An internal staff memo, seen by
The Sunday Times, warns that the arrival of the train at 1.36pm in
Strasbourg will “deprive colleagues of their midday break and the
possibility of a proper lunch”.
Martin Callanan, a Tory MEP, said: “The journey to Strasbourg is a complete
waste of everybody’s time and money.”
