Restrictions on regional passenger transport during epidemiological threat (COVID-19) – an example of the Lower Silesian Voivodship in Poland

Abstract

The beginning of 2020 was associated with the appearance of the global coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The spread of the epidemic caused the introduction of an epidemiological emergency in Poland in early March (on March 12). This resulted in reduced public transport, including regional rail transport. In Lower Silesia, this concerned regional and fast connections. The conducted analysis concerns regional connections and is based on exploration of the spatial and the quantitative aspect of these changes. The transport offer before and after the announcing of the epidemic was analysed. The results showed that most of the transport restrictions concerned the peripheries of the voivodeship (local routes). Agglomeration routes were much less affected by the restrictions. On some lines a decrease to less than 5 pairs of connections per day was recorded. Once the restrictions are removed, it may be a challenge to encourage passengers to use railways again. Despite the low number of connections on many routes, rail transport can still be considered as the basis of the transport system. This is due to the lack of an alternative bus service.

30 years of the transformation of non-urban public transport in Poland’s peripheral areas — what went wrong?

“…This was not an isolated phenomenon, as -according to Oszter (2020) -the initial period of the pandemic in Ukraine, Slovenia and Croatia saw public transport suspended entirely. It was also pointed out that regions retaining reasonable possibilities as regards rail transport (albeit reduced by between 40 and 95% in the period), were still left in a better situation than many regions relying solely on bus transport (Taczanowski and Kołoś 2020;Smolarski 2020).…”

Stages of spatial dispersion of the COVID-19 epidemic in Poland in the first six months (4 March-20 September, 2020).

“…As early as June 2020, a special issue of the 'Prace Komisji Geografii Komunikacji PTG' (Transport Geography Papers of Polish Geographical Society) on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various aspects of mobility will be published: passenger rail transport in Poland and Italy (Taczanowski, 2020;Taczanowski & Kołoś, 2020), air traffic in Poland (Pijet-Migoń, 2020), bus transport in rural areas of the Low Beskids and Bieszczady Mts. (Ciechański, 2020), tourist trips (Wiskulski, 2020), passenger transport in the Dolnośląskie voivodship (Smolarski, 2020), and the novel for Poland application of Google LCC telemetry data in measuring lockdown movements (Tarkowski et al, 2020). In addition, various other articles are successively published, e.g.…”

Wpływ pandemii COVID-19 na funkcjonowanie regionalnego transportu kolejowego obszarów przygranicznych – na przykładzie województwa dolnośląskiego (PL) i kraju libereckiego (CZ)

“…: mniejsza liczba wypadków drogowych, wzrost codziennej aktywności fizycznej oraz spadek odsetka osób otyłych w społeczeństwie. Z drugiej strony można postrzegać transport zbiorowy jako potencjalny wektor przenoszący epidemię (Rodrigue i in., 2016, Jenelius, Cebecauer, 2020Smolarski, 2020). Za jeden z paradoksów można uznać fakt, że im bardziej i lepiej rozwinięty system transportowy (z większą liczbą pasażerów) tym "lepiej" za jego pomocą dochodzi do rozpowszechnienia epidemii.…”

“…na Węgrzech (Oszter, 2020). Obostrzenia, które wprowadzono na przełomie marca i kwietnia 2020 roku przez kolejne państwa, spowodowały całkowite zawieszenie połączeń pasażerskich pomiędzy sąsiadującymi krajami i regionami (Smolarski, 2020). Początkowo (marzec-maj 2020) granice były zamknięte niemal całkowicie, nawet dla pracowników transgranicznych.…”