Brussels, 16/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - Black Tuesday for the European Parliament's transport committee will now take place on 17 December when the committee is due to vote on rail reform and the review of air passenger rights. Consensus on these two subjects appears a long way off. Regarding the 4th railway package, the vote on this technical pillar, which is made up of regulations on safety, inter-operability and the European Railway Safety Agency is expected to go through without too much controversy. On the other hand, the regulations on opening up the domestic passenger market and railway infrastructure governance constitute the politically sensitive pillar and are expected to be much more problematic. Rapporteurs Mathieus Grosch (EPP, Belgium) and Saïd El Khadraoui (S&D, Belgium) also called for the vote to be postponed from 25 November to 17 December so that they had more time to develop compromise amendments. Around 10 of these have been developed for each of these reports and may be supported by the different groups. Nonetheless, they will not necessarily go in the direction sought by the European Commission with regard to railway governance or greater flexibility that could result from it and the ceilings on the direct allocation of public contracts. Opening up of the domestic passenger transport market may also be significantly delayed with regard to the European Commission's goals on this subject. Sources close to the Commission say that DG Move is at this stage delighted, however, that the text has been put forward for a vote, which leaves hope that adoption of this reform could still take place during the first reading under this legislative period. In the area of air passenger rights, MEPs are also preparing to vote on a notorious modification to the Commission's wishes. On the basis of the report by Georges Bach (EPP, Luxembourg), they will vote on a large number of compromises as well, which focus on hand luggage, a reduction in the ceilings at which compensation can be obtained when flights are delayed, and more restrictive circumstances for exemptions to this, as well as the introduction of provisions protecting passengers in the event of airline bankruptcies. (MD/transl.fl)