Published on March 8, 2018
Ladies’ coupés on Czech Railways trains are all right
Ladies coupés on Czech Railways trains were introduced in 2012 after Czech Railways received a considerable number of complaints from passengers (especially women) claiming that they do not feel safe in the trains while sitting with strange men in one coupé. Inspired by the solution adopted abroad (for example in Germany or Austria), Czech Railways decided to reserve six seats (one coupé) on trains only for women.
This innovation provoked a critical reaction from several men who felt to be discriminated on the basis of their sex. Some of them decided to fill a complaint to the Ombudsman (at that time the office was held by Pavel Varvařovský) who came to conclusion that this measure had a legitimate aim (increased feeling of safety of women passengers) which was proportional, and therefore lawful.
After a few years, the Ombudswoman, Anna Šabatová, had to deal with this issue again after she received another two complaints from male passengers complaining about the discriminatory nature of Ladies’ coupés. After careful examination of the whole context of the measure, the Ombudswoman decided to confirm the opinion of Mr. Varvařovský and stated that women’s coupés on trains do not violate the Antidiscrimination Law.
The Ombudswoman found the goal to increase the feeling of safety of female travelers resulting in their bigger interest in train transport legitimate and achievable. Moreover, the Ladies’ coupé represents only six reserved seats on the entire train (2% of the total train capacity) and such coupés are not deployed in all trains. The measure is therefore not capable of excluding men from the service offered by Czech Railways or of restricting their access to it. Therefore, such practice cannot be considered as discriminatory.
At the same time, the Ombudswoman recommended Czech Railways to conduct a survey among the traveling women in order find out whether their feeling of safety or frequency of use of the Czech Railways trains really increased. Ms. Šabatová also advised the national train transport services to consider other measures which could achieve the desired goal.
In response to these recommendations, Czech Railways pointed out that the safety in the trains has increased also due to presence of security agency troops in some trains. At the same time, the wagons with a large-space arrangement are generally considered as safer. Therefore, these wagons will be preferred and Ladies' coupés might not be necessary any more in the future.