Abstract
Energy is crucial to economic development, but its production usually has a negative impact on the environment. This ambivalence leads to the need for methods to improve energy efficiency. Transportation is one of the largest global energy consumers. Therefore, improving the energy efficiency of transportation is crucial for sustainable development. The aim of this article is to show the limitations of energy management in railways, resulting from the model of market regulation. The question in this context is whether only technological methods can be used in railways to steer its energy efficiency, as is suggested by the existing research. Critical analysis, desk research and a case study of Polish railway undertaking were used to find an answer to the research question. The discussion of the results shows that the European regulatory system leads to greater complications in the field of energy management than in other global regions, where railways are also important for the economy. Due to these limitations, rail operators use indirect methods to measure energy efficiency. Results indicate that although energy efficiency improvements are being achieved, they are mainly due to organizational measures and not technological ones as could be expected based on previous research.
Highlights
As we show in the analyses conducted in this chapter, rail is a mode of transportation whose global environmental impact is relatively small
If we assume that the share of energy consumption represents the input and the modal share represents the output of the system, the global energy efficiency of rail can be evaluated in this perspective as almost eight times higher than the efficiency of road transport
It should be noted that rail transport has significantly improved its energy efficiency in recent decades, as indicated by data published by the UIC on decreasing unit energy consumption on rail [47]
Summary
Academic Editors: David Borge-Diez and Victor Manuel Ferreira Moutinho. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Energy is essential for economic and social development, as well as for improving the quality of life. We could no longer imagine the modern world without access to energy. Ensuring energy security has become one of the fundamental tasks facing governments of individual countries. The increasing demand for energy on the one hand and dwindling resources of non-renewable energy sources on the other results in the need to acquire energy from alternative sources and to increase efficiency of energy consumption in various areas of the economy, agriculture and social life as well as appropriate energy management
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