Impact of Infrastructural Investments on the Development of the Railway Sector in the European Union Countries

Abstract

Identification of railway transport as a key element of sustainable and effective transport showcases the necessity of strengthening the role it plays, both on the EU policy level as well as in the EU Member States. The consequence of such a policy is strong financial support allocated to the railway sector, e.g. in the form of infrastructural investments. This leads to questions on the efficiency of such support and its influence on the railway sector. In this respect, the analysis of the public support impact on railway transport in relation to variables describing the condition of this sector has been conducted. The analysis was focused on the evaluation of the impact of railway infrastructure investments. The results indicate significant differences in the effects among particular countries, illustrating the heterogeneous impact of an independent variable on measures concerning transport performance in passenger and freight services (passenger-kilometre and tonne-kilometre). Countries with higher support for infrastructure investments, in general, achieve better results in respect to the above-mentioned measures. Nevertheless, the strength of this impact is highly differential, which indicates the necessity of increasing the efficiency of infrastructural investments in the railway sector in particular countries.