Analyzing the Factors Which Influence the Effectiveness of Railway Passenger Transport

Railway transport makes significant contributions to the economy of every country. Approximately 30 000 people are directly employed in this sector in Bulgaria, and the added value to the GDP amounts to approximately 2% (NSI, 2019а). Railway transport is crucial for a more sustainable transport sector, stable economic development, as well as social cohesion and connectivity of citizens. The article presents a study of the technical and operational factors for the work of railway transport as well as energy consumption during freights. The goal is to outline the way these indicators affect the stable development of railway transport and what their actual influence is in regard to carrying out railway passenger transport. The speed and energy efficiency of railway passenger transport have been analysed, as they will serve as the foundation for specific suggestions on how to carry out passenger transport in Bulgaria more effectively.

Possibilities of Building Connection of M.R. Štefánik Airport to the ŽSR Network

The current conditions of the railway infrastructure near the M. R. Štefánik Airport is analysed as unsatisfactory. The current form of the railway infrastructure of the monitored area is not adapted to the creation of a suitable place for boarding and alighting of passengers. The point determined for boarding and alighting of passengers must be at a reasonable distance from the M. R. Štefánik Airport terminal. This distance must be able to be overcome by walking so that it is not necessary to use another mode of transport to move between these places. The article deals with the possibilities of connecting of M. R. Štefánik Airport to the ŽSR network. The basis for the proposal to connect M. R. Štefánik Airport with a suitable infrastructure ŽSR network within the framework of railway passenger transport is the determination of a suitable transfer point. One of the logical priorities is to place the transfer point as close as possible to the air transport terminal of the M. R. Štefánik Airport within the space possibilities and technical conditions.

The Mathematical Analysis of Demands for Railway Passenger Transport in Kosovo

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the railway transport of passengers in Kosovo, to determine its intensity and structure, to analyse which factors have the greatest impact on the demand for regular rail transport. Furthermore, the paper will examine which trend, which model fits best in moving this mode of transport based on data from 2011 to 2019, and then predict future trends in transport demand. The existence and strength of the dependence among the selected factors, which are assumed to have an impact on passenger rail transport will be examined by the mathematical method of regression analysis.

Increasing the mobility of University North students by improving the railway infrastructure: Case study on the Varaždin-Koprivnica route

The trend of an increasing number of student travellers from the University of the North, the University Centers of Koprivnica and Varaždin also affects the quality of their mobility. The mobility of student-passengers in rail passenger transport is directly related to the quality of service and the inevitable maximum safety aspect, but also to the appropriate railway infrastructure. According to the above, it is necessary to analyse the current state of transport infrastructure and propose activities to increase the mobility of student-passengers. This paper analyses the current status of student-passenger mobility in railway passenger transport, and also analyses the regional features of road and railway transport infrastructure, state road DC-2 and railway R202 Varaždin-Dalj, located between the cities of Varaždin and Koprivnica, with regard to route characteristics and infrastructure facilities. As part of the work, a survey was conducted through questionnaires, and questionnaires were completed by students-travellers of the University of the North.

An Integrated Approach of Strategic Planning and Multi-Criteria Analysis to Evaluate Transport Strategies in Railway Network

This chapter presents a methodology for selecting transport strategy for railway passenger transport development. The strategic planning, as Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental (PESTLE) analysis and Strengths - Weaknesses – Opportunities - Threats (SWOT) analysis integrated with Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) have been applied as a tool to make decision. The proposed methodology consists five stages. The first stage formulates the alternatives of the policies for railway manager. The criteria in each PESTLE group have been defined in the second step. The total number of 24 criteria has been studied. In third stage, the SIMUS method based on linear programming has been applied to rank the alternatives and assess the criteria in PESTLE groups. The fourth stage represents the ranking by application the different multi0criteria approaches as distance based, utility based and outranking methods to make decision. The combination the PESTLE analysis with SWOT analysis for strategic planning is done in the fifth stage. The integration of the PESTLE with technical, economic, technological and environmental (TETE) analysis in presented. The application of methodology has been demonstrated with an example for Bulgarian railway network. Three strategies of railway transport development have been evaluated and compared. It was found that the most important are the political (0.29), social (0.25) and technological (0.25) groups in PESTLE analysis.

Polish Regional and Long-Distance Railway Transport During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this article is to present the changes that took place on the market of passenger transport by rail in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. Particular attention has been paid to the railway passenger transport in Poland. Two segments of this transport sector are presented: regional (represented by the POLREGIO company) and long-distance (represented by the PKP Intercity company). An analysis of the available data shows that irrespective of the segment, the year 2020 was characterized by significant reductions in terms of transport, which reached the lowest volumes in April and May, and the financial results of PKP Intercity were worse than in previous years; however, the share of POLREGIO in the market of passenger transport by rail increased. For the purpose of the article, literature and other available sources have been researched and analytical and synthetic methods have been applied. In addition to text, drawings are included. Keywords: railways, regional railway transport, long-distance railway transport, COVID-19

Evaluation and Analysis of a Method to Real-Name Check Train Tickets during the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has swept the world for more than one year. Public transport, especially railway passenger transport for long distance and extensive areas, is the most potential risk source of the pandemic. In railway passenger transport, real-name train ticket check can effectively track the propagation path of the pandemic, which is of most significance for spread prevention of COVID-19. In this study, the evaluation index system of real-name check of ticket in trains was first established, in which 22 indexes in 4 levels were included, and their weights were determined by the Method of Kantiray Weighting. Furthermore, a comprehensive evaluation model of real-name system check was proposed, in which normalized work of different indexes was done, and key factors affecting the evaluation were founded. Finally, typical data of 8 trains check were collected, and from the evaluation analysis, we can find out that most factors affecting results of real-name ticket check are attendant management, train organization level, train service, and real-name ticket check proportion, based on which corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are given oriented to short-, medium-, and long-distance trains, respectively, all of which can reduce the risk of pandemic propagation in railway system.

THE USE OF PROGRESSIVE GRAVITATIONAL METHODS IN THE LOGISTICS OF RAIL PASSENGER TRANSPORT

The main strategic goal of EU transport policy is to support public passenger transport and railway transport as a key transport mode. It is also very important to develop and improve logistic processes in passenger transport. To meet these goals it is necessary to use professional and scientific methods, for example gravitational methods. These methods can be included among progressive empirical methods and models that are used to generalize specific results and offer a general solution to the problem, from practical knowledge to theoretical formulation. These methods are utilised in the natural sciences but their using in transport processes is very important too. One of the best known empirical methods are Nyvig´s and Lill´s gravitational methods. They are especially used in transport planning and organizing, determining of the traffic potential, optimization and rationalization of timetables and traffic service. In the contribution the authors deals with using of the current and new progressive gravitational methods in the context of rail passenger transport logistics. The first chapter comprises narrow connection of the logistics and rail passenger transport including the explanation of their function in rail passenger transport. The next chapter contains an analysis the current research of raised issues. The most important scientific part conssists of theoretical concept of the gravitational methods in railway passenger transport and its various modifications. Theoretical principles of the new progressive Lill´s gravitational model form including its practical application at the chosen railway passenger transport routes are explained and analyzed in the fourth and the fifth chapter.

A Novel Fuzzy SIMUS Multicriteria Decision-Making Method. An Application in Railway Passenger Transport Planning

To increase the level of adequacy in multi-criteria decision-making in the case of uncertainty, it is essential to reduce the subjectivism and to increase the reality of obtained results. The study aims to propose a novel fuzzy multi-criteria method based on the fuzzy linear programming method and sequential interactive model for urban systems method (SIMUS), named fuzzy SIMUS. This paper is something completely different because it links the power of fuzzy with the advantage of the SIMUS method. Indeed, not using weights, it works with optimal values. Here, this procedure is presented for the first time. The methodology consists of three stages. The first stage includes forming the parameters of a multi-criteria model in the case of uncertainty. The initial matrix has three values: lower, medium, and upper. In the second stage, the fuzzy SIMUS model for each objective is formed based on fuzzy linear programming method. The third stage deals with the ranking of the alternatives. The methodology was experimented for planning railway intercity passenger transport in Bulgarian’s railway network. Nine alternative transport plans and eight criteria were studied. It was found that the objectives which influence ranking the most are the frequency of train stops (15%), direct operational costs (15%), train’s capacity (14.7%), and reliability (14.3%). A transport plan for railway passenger transport is proposed. A verification of the results was performed. It was found that the stability of the choice presented a suitable alternative.