Transport Market and Status of Rail Freight Transport in the Context of Liberalization of Services

Abstract

The deregulation of the rail transport market in the EU aims to improve the quality of the provided services and increase the efficiency of operation. This effect should manifest itself by increasing the competitiveness of rail transport, but also help to maintain an ecologically favourable transport system. However, transport policy is different in individual countries and there are differences in how they approach the support of rail freight transport. The paper evaluates the position of freight transport on the liberalized market, the positives and negatives. The research deals with bottlenecks in rail transport and offers a way to support rail transport. It is based on the authors' own research. It uses the Delphi method and multicriteria analysis. The benefit is the proposal of three sets of packages with different impacts on strengthening the position of railway transport in the transport market. The first is focused on technological changes with minimal expenditure of financial costs at the national level. The second package concerns new technological procedures, interoperability, security, and charges for the use of infrastructure and information systems. The third represents the greatest effectiveness for increasing the performance of bottlenecks in rail freight transport.