The paper describes several characteristics of transport demand in regional passenger transport and its changes over certain periods of day and week in post-pandemical time with respect to different public transportpublic transport evaluation modes. With the transport survey conducted in October 2021 in the Lovosice Area, Czech Republic, the demand characteristics such as the extent of the morning and afternoon peak hourspeak hour are demonstrated. In the first part, the daily variationdaily variation for a standard workday in the network’s busiest section is analyzed. In the following part, weekly variationweekly variation for working days is discussed. The paper is concluded with the regional and seasonal specifics of the weekly passenger variation during weekends.

This article is focused on the reliability of transfer connections in regional railway transport. The reliability of the transportation chain in public transport is an essential element for functional, attractive, and long-term sustainable public transport. This article discusses the causes and consequences of railway traffic disruption and related impacts on passenger transfer connections. To reduce the negative impacts of common operational disruptions, the authors present an original approach for determining transfer waiting times between delayed trains based on a modified critical path method (CPM). In addition, an example of the implementation of this method in regional railway transport in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic is provided.

This article focuses on possible approaches to safe regional public transport during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purposes of the research are examination the conditions for ensuring safe transport and the impact on the planning of transport services. The result is an assessment of the operation of regional public transport, consisting of the possibility of maintaining safe distances in public transport. Authors work on suburban transport cases in selected regions of the Czech Republic (Prague and Moravian-Silesian Region). Census devices in public transport, periodical transport surveys, Google mobility reports and data on fare sales from regional transport were used as data sources. Emphasis is placed on a safe distance between commuters, this condition leads to lower occupancy of the vehicle while maintaining the capacity of the vehicles. The value of this new occupancy is determined for selected vehicles and the coefficient that represents the maximum occupancy level to ensure safe transport is established. The capacity of the connections is examined in the period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to the period before COVID-19, the daily variation of passengers is expected to change significantly, leading to different occupancy rates during the day.

Freight rail transport plays key role in the transition to sustainable development. However, on European mainlines, freight trains have to cope with busy passenger operation—mostly in the form of (integrated) periodic timetables. Freight trains are characterized with very diverse parameters, so scheduling pre-arranged periodic freight train paths (PFTPs) on the basis of one sample freight train does not meet the needs of most freight operators. This article introduces new detailed framework process for hierarchized construction of differentiated (segmented) pre-arranged PFTPs. The process considers fluctuations in demand for capacity from freight rail operators, so the quality of a freight train path in terms of number of stops is related with its construction priority. This way, the process enhances competitiveness and decreases energy consumption of freight railway, as a factor for sustainable development. Correctness of the framework process is tested on the example of the Prague—Dresden mainline, in the context of prospective (denser) model passenger timetable. Results show that above 70% of real freight trains from the available historical data can fit into the proposed PFTPs. As a conclusion, the authors recommend reduction of service of the least frequent stops of regional trains to reduce number of scheduled stops for freight trains.