Abstract
This paper presents a method for optimising freight traffic procedures on the border between Slovakia (European Union) and Ukraine. In Eastern Europe a considerable volume of goods is usually carried by rail. On the Ukrainian side there is the Chop railway station, the largest entry/exit rail point and on the Slovakian side there is the Cierna nad Tisou railway station. The latter station is on the TEN-T as part of the Rhine-Danube Core Network Corridor. Total railway freight between Slovakia and Ukraine makes around 16 million tonnes per year, which amounts to about 40 % of the entire railway freight transport in Slovakia. The most frequently transported goods are iron, coal and metal. Around 247,000 freight cars are used for transport between Slovakia and Ukraine every year. The most important organisational aspect of transport in this case is the existence of two different procedures. In Slovakia, transport is organised according to the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF), and in Ukraine, transport is organised according to the Agreement on International Goods Transport by Rail (SMGS). Today all procedures are completely manual. This means that transport documentation is rewritten from SMGS to COTIF, or vice versa. This process is very labour-intensive and time-consuming. Following an analysis we performed a case study using the critical path method (CPM) for optimisation of the technological process for transport methodology at the Cierna nad Tisou railway station and we proposed a method for electronic data exchange between the rail and customs authorities of Slovakia and Ukraine. The research optimised organisational procedures by using the critical path method (CPM) and introducing electronic data exchange to cut down the whole process by 170 min or 66.7 % of the total time spent at the border station. Railway freight transport has a very important role in Eastern Europe, but also in the European Union (EU), so to enable seamless connections there is a need to cut down the time that the freight/wagons spend at the border station. To meet the future demand for transport between the East and West there is a need to introduce electronic data exchange between COTIF and SMGS to achieve a quicker and easier use of freight railways for transport of goods.
Highlights
Railway freight offers a quick, large-scale, safe transportation of goods over long distances in a reasonable period of time
Following an analysis we performed a case study using the critical path method (CPM) for optimisation of the technological process for transport methodology at the Čierna nad Tisou railway station and we proposed a method for electronic data exchange between the rail and customs authorities of Slovakia and Ukraine
The research optimised organisational procedures by using the critical path method (CPM) and introducing electronic data exchange to cut down the whole process by 170 min or 66.7 % of the total time spent at the border station
Summary
On the Ukrainian side there is the Chop railway station, the largest entry/exit rail point and on the Slovakian side there is the Čierna nad Tisou railway station. The latter station is on the TEN-T as part of the Rhine-Danube Core Network Corridor. This means that transport documentation is rewritten from SMGS to COTIF, or vice versa. Following an analysis we performed a case study using the critical path method (CPM) for optimisation of the technological process for transport methodology at the Čierna nad Tisou railway station and we proposed a method for electronic data exchange between the rail and customs authorities of Slovakia and Ukraine
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