The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on global social and economic development, including the transport sector. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, individual states had to take radical measures, including the closure of schools, offices, and businesses. At present, an extraordinary situation persists in the Slovak Republic in connection to the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to influence the behavior and decisions of passengers when using public passenger transport. Anti-pandemic measures in the Slovak Republic were reflected in a decrease in the mobility of the population in public passenger transport; the change in mobility manifested to different extents in individual regions of the Slovak Republic. Our research at the regional level is focused on the Žilina self-governing region. The net impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was clear through a year-on-year decrease in the number of total passenger transport systems for suburban bus transport (SBT) in ŽSK by 40.2% in March, in April by 70.0%, and in May by 60. 2%. There was a more significant decrease in the number of passengers in the first wave of the pandemic in the first half of 2020 than during the second wave of the pandemic in the second half of 2020. The decrease in demand was most pronounced in April 2020 in pupils and students aged 15 years (−89.3%), in children under 6 years (−85.7%), and in seniors over 65 (−80.0%). A time series of past demand for SBT in the Žilina self-governing region, including data from the pandemic period used for forecasts of single-criteria, reduced the reliability of estimated future values of demand. Estimated future demand values are an important part of SBT’s transport service plans for ensuring an adequate supply of transport services in order to maintain demand.

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Transport is key for our economy and society, as good transport infrastructure helps to improve the mobility of citizens and the flow of goods. The European Union intends to maintain support for the development of transport infrastructure in the individual Member States. The aim of this study was to use correlation analysis to compare selected parameters of the road and railway infrastructure of Japan and selected EU countries. The significance of the correlations between various parameters characterizing the transport infrastructure of Japan and selected EU countries was tested. Correlation analysis is not typical in transport-oriented research. Several studies have employed such analysis; however, the majority of them have focused on passenger transport and correlations concerning the behavior of the customers of this mode of transport. The aim of this study was to answer the following research question: is there any correlation between transport performance and infrastructure or investment in infrastructure in relation to the mentioned countries, and, if so, is there a connection between the selected countries where this correlation occurs? Greater investment can also be expected in the construction of high-speed railways, given the decisions of some EU Member States not to resume national air transport where there is good railway infrastructure, even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Presupposition for realizing the demand for bus transport is the existence of its potential, which represents the population of that city, region, or state. Public passenger transport is considered to be an instrument of state social policy. The legislation defines it as transport performed to satisfaction the transport needs of persons, especially vulnerable groups, pupils, students, and pensioners. A significant problem in Slovakia and also in abroad is an aging population. The retired population has different transport habits like other groups of passengers (children, pupils and students, economically active persons), which is related to the change of transport requirements, as well as an adaptation the public transport offer. In recent years, the number of license holders of individual disabled persons has been increasing in Slovakia, or possibly individual person with severe disability with a guide. In this article, we focus on examining the issue of the rising trend of issued valid licenses of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility, and related new measures, to which transport undertakings are confronted and transport service subscribers. The aim is also to identify the motivation to own a disability person license or persons with reduced mobility with the ability to use it for the demand for public passenger transport.

The paper deals with the research of the demand and supply of public passenger transport services in the state of emergency caused by the COVID-19 disease. The extraordinary situation has been affecting the behaviour and decision-making of passengers and their demand for public transport not only in the Slovak Republic but globally. The situation has caused a significant decline in passenger transport as well as changes in the structure of passengers who still use the public transport system. Several operators have responded to declining demand by reducing the transport services supply, to reduce operating costs. The declining demand is reflected in a decrease in transport revenues and an increase in the demonstrable loss of operators providing public passenger transport services.