Sustainable rail transport is an important aim within European transport policy. One way to achieve this is to open-up the rail passenger market to competition. The White paper 2011 of the European Commission (EC) stated that: a competitive and resource efficient transport system presents the need towards opening domestic rail passenger market to competition, including the mandatory award of public service contracts through competitive tendering as a first initiative within the single European transport area. The open access to competition is realised by two different approaches in many European countries; 1) as a public service provision through public tender and 2) on a commercial basis-though open access. Markets for domestic rail passenger services through public tenders have not been opened in many EU countries. The study looks at the rail passenger transport market situation in selected European countries (Austria, Italy, Hungary, Germany, etc.) and places a particular focus on the transport market situation in Slovak Republic. It describes different mechanisms to realise public tenders for the operation of rail passenger transport services under Public Service Obligation (PSO), analysis process of public tenders in the Slovak Republic, quantifies the risk of unsuccessful public tenders and suggest the criteria to achieve successful public tenders for providing rail passenger transport services under PSO.

Liberalisation of the rail transport market is the main aim of the European Union in the field of transport policy. Open access on the market allows railway undertakings to provide their services, but it also requires to compete with each other. In recent years, night train services have experienced a renaissance, especially in west-Europe countries. A development of this type of services is important to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality in EU, especially in context of affordable air transport. The aim of this study is to analyse current night train services in middle Europe and find opportunities for their further development. In this article we have proposed new night train connections between Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Germany, provided by railway undertaking in open access mode, with a detailed cost calculation. This is necessary to assess the economic efficiency of introducing new connections. Results of the cost calculations form the basis of the price for transport on newly introduced routes.

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This paper deals with the charging system and rail infrastructure fees use in V4 countries. The goal was to find out how the charges differ in terms of the train type, weight and distance traveled on different track categories. The charging principle for minimum access packages and for the access and services supplied in service facilities was investigated. Due to different technical, technological and other conditions for the rail infrastructure capacity utilization, the modeled situation was compared to the real one. This research shows differences between individual countries, both in the charging system and in the price for the rail infrastructure use (the prices were recalculated to € and in the PPP-purchasing power parity). It is interesting that the differences are not only significant with regard to the category of track used and the train's weight (especially in the freight transport), but with regard to other factors, as well, in particular the type of train and price for the use of railway stations.