Changes, problems, and challenges of passenger railway transport in Slovakia

Abstract

Changes, problems, and challenges of passenger railway transport in Slovakia The passenger railway transport system in Slovakia, during the last almost thirty years, has undergone many changes and it has faced many problems and new challenges. The change of the socioeconomic system, the splitting of Czechoslovakia, the process of accession to the EU and membership of Slovakia have influenced transport system in Slovakia. The main aim of this article is to identify main changes, problems and challenges of passenger railway transport in Slovakia after 1989. Attention is paid to the changing position of railway transport in the transport of persons in Slovakia. Article is also focused on the changes of organisation of railway transport in Slovakia and its deregulation, liberalisation, and starting of competition in passenger railway transport with the example of comparison of the operation of the state and the private carriers. The specific governmental measure, a zero-fare public railway transport services for selected groups of passengers, has significantly influenced a passenger railway transport in Slovakia since 2014.

Public transport accessibility and spatial exclusion in Roma settlements: A case study of three regions in Eastern Slovakia

“…Although public transportation is rather well developed in most of the EU countries, the Central European territory shows some peculiarities stemming from either specific features of the population distribution in some regions (e. g. so-called scattered settlement in the Carpathians generating obstacles for an effective public transportation), or collapsing public transport supply as a consequence of the post-socialist public transport sectors' transition (see e. g. Pucher & Buehler, 2005;Taczanowski, 2015;, Seidenglanz et al, 2015. In most postsocialist countries, public transport has witnessed a considerable fall within the modal split of passenger transport, mirroring the modal split trends observable in Western Europe (Król et al, 2018;Horňák et al, 2013;Michniak, 2018). According to Eurostat databases, the share of public transport of the total passenger transport performances dropped to between 20-30% in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Hungary by 2017 (Energy, Transport and Environment Statistics, 2020).…”

Transport-related problems of Bratislava city and its suburbanregion

“…After 1989, there was an evident decrease in the importance of public transport, and a development of individual automobile transport (see e.g. Pucher, 1999;Michniak, 2018). The reduced importance of public transport in Slovakia, especially by road, is to be observed in relation to both numbers of passengers and performance.…”

“…The decrease in public transport and massive increase in individual automobile transport after 1989 in Slovakia (Horňák and Pšenka, 2013;Michniak, 2018) and other post-communist countries (Howkins, 2005;Pucher and Buehler, 2005) caused many problems, e.g. with insufficient transport infrastructure, traffic congestion, unregulated parking in cities and towns, missing integration of public transport, etc.…”

Relative Accessibility of District Centres in Slovakia by Public Transport in 2003 and 2017

“…In 2012, the private carrier RegioJet took over operation of the Bratislava -Dunajská Streda -Komárno railway route in the suburban zone of Bratislava. The improved operation of the private carrier has led to an increase in the number of direct connections between these DCs and also the number of passengers (Michniak, 2018). The liberalisation has also contributed to an improvement of the networking and an increase of the number of direct connections, mainly in the case of the regional centre of Prešov because of new trains provided by the private operator LEO Express, from Košice to Prague and also leading through Prešov.…”