How the gospel - the Political Guidelines - left the European Commission with a ticketing proposal both radical and unworkable

Ursula von der Leyen called her disciples, the Commissioners, to gather around. Holding up a bound edition of the Political Guidelines, she conferred a great responsibility onto each of them.Beckoning disciple for transport, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, towards her, she gave him his instructions: "cross-border train travel is still too difficult for many citizens," von der Leyen said. "Ensure that Europeans can buy one single ticket on one single platform and get passengers’ rights for their whole trip!"And so Tzitzikostas, perplexed by what von der Leyen exactly meant, nevertheless retreated to his office in the Church of Berlaymont and resolved to do what the leader had conferred on him, and worked in purgatory for two years to produce the Rail Ticketing Regulation that was finally released today, part of what is now known as the Passenger Package.At no point did Tzitzikostas return to the leader for illumination, to find out whether the absence of an s on the word 'ticket' was simply an…