Przewozy pasażerskie w regionalnym systemie transportu kolejowego w województwie dolnośląskim w 2018 r. = Spatial distribution of passenger flows in a regional system of rail transport. A case study involving Poland’s Dolnośląskie Voivodeship

Abstract

Poland’s socio-economic transformation brought a rapid increase in motorisation even as public transport underwent regression. This problem was particularly marked in the rail-transport sector, which experienced the largest contraction in the history of railways on Polish territory. However, by the late 2010s and early 2020s, it was possible to note positive change on the country’s rail-services market, mainly due to investment in infrastructure and the emergence of new railway companies. The period in question may thus be seen to mark the beginning of a new stage to the development of rail transport in Poland. Notwithstanding steady growth in numbers of passengers carried by rail in recent years, the current level of use of this means of transport continues to look relatively low in Poland, as compared with other EU Member States. This leaves it especially important for rail transport to be researched, in the contexts of both the sector’s functioning in a new stage to its development, and the strengthening of rail’s role as a means of transport. In this, the analysis of passenger flows should be emphasised in particular, given the way this allows spatial differentiation of travel behaviour in given areas to be identified. However, as difficulties with obtaining relevant data have ensured a lack of full understanding in the relevant literature, the work underpinning the present article was designed specifically to help make good this research gap. Specifically, this article aims to elucidate the spatial distribution of passenger flows as set against the transport offer, and to identify the kind of relationship which pertains between these two features and aspects. To that end, research was conducted in Poland’s Dolnośląskie Voivodeship – as a regional-level unit of administration considered to exemplify rail transport at regional level. In consequence, our analysis was able to confirm the uneven nature of volumes of passenger traffic across Poland. A peak concentration of traffic characterises the commuter lines around Wrocław, which is also the largest generator of traffic. However, at successively greater distances from that urban centre, numbers of passengers are found to be steadily lower. This culminates in a situation whereby the smallest numbers of people travel along lines in the region’s peripheries, most especially where sections of the rail network lack direct connections with Wrocław. Through empirical analysis forming this study’s last part, we also confirmed that data on the transport offer may (with certain limitations) be treated as a proxy for data on passenger traffic.