Peter Šulko’s research while affiliated with University of Žilina and other places

Nowadays, it is essential to contribute to sustainable transport to the maximum extent possible. Therefore, a significant emphasis is placed on environmentally friendly modes of transport, especially railway transport. For this reason, it is very important to ensure sufficient capacity of the railway infrastructure and high-quality railway transport operations. Railway transport control, operation, and management bring several specifications and unique features. One of the most important things is to correctly determine the capacity and throughput of the railway infrastructure because it must be clear how many trains can be operated on a concrete railway line for a certain time. Therefore, the issue of railway infrastructure capacity is a relatively broad and complex topic. Currently, there are several methods and ways to determine it. However, for scientific progress and research in this field, it is necessary to look for new scientific and professional solutions to the mentioned issue with effective implementation into practice. The mentioned contribution deals with new modern progressive methods of determining the capacity of the railway line using simulations and software applications. The main objective is to establish a methodology, specifically a heuristic procedure, in which specific partial steps of a new method of determining the capacity of railway infrastructure are defined. Subsequently, this new way of determining it is directly applied and explained on the specific railway line Bratislava–Komárno, which is located in southwestern Slovakia. The first part of the paper contains a theoretical framework and a brief explanation of the issue, including current used methods, as well as current scientific and professional manuscripts and papers that deal with this topic. Subsequently, the mentioned railway line is described, including the current operational problems arising on it due to insufficient current capacity. As part of the results, the proposal part is presented, including a universal heuristic procedure, which includes partial steps of the new methodology with application to the mentioned railway line. The discussions present its theoretical and practical benefits and topics for the further development of this issue. However, the most significant benefit will be the more effective identification of bottlenecks in railway operations, which will improve its smoothness and will have a significant impact on sustainable development and its aspects in the field of transport.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for public passenger transport has decreased significantly in many European countries since March 2020. Due to several measures and restrictions adopted, this decrease was particularly pronounced in international long-distance transport due to several restrictions and measures adopted. A significant decrease in demand could also be observed on the international rail transport route Bratislava / Vienna – Prague in the form of the decline in the number of transported passengers on this railway line. Therefore, it is very important and necessary to propose various measures to increase the demand and achieve a significant long-term increase in the number of passengers in long-distance rail transport not only on the mentioned transport route. This paper analyses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on passenger transport usage frequency and proposes solutions to improve the quality of the timetables. It deals with the long-term and systematic concept of international long-distance passenger rail transport on the Prague – Bratislava / Vienna and back in the post-pandemic period. For this purpose, specific scientific methods are selected, which can be applied in order to rationalize and optimize train timetables.

This paper deals with the charging system and rail infrastructure fees use in V4 countries. The goal was to find out how the charges differ in terms of the train type, weight and distance traveled on different track categories. The charging principle for minimum access packages and for the access and services supplied in service facilities was investigated. Due to different technical, technological and other conditions for the rail infrastructure capacity utilization, the modeled situation was compared to the real one. This research shows differences between individual countries, both in the charging system and in the price for the rail infrastructure use (the prices were recalculated to € and in the PPP-purchasing power parity). It is interesting that the differences are not only significant with regard to the category of track used and the train's weight (especially in the freight transport), but with regard to other factors, as well, in particular the type of train and price for the use of railway stations.

The sustainability of services in undertakings which operate in railway passenger transport is closely connected with efforts to provide high-quality and time-acceptable services to the customer, to achieve lean processes, to standardise work processes, to eliminate wastage and to avoid those activities which do not add any value. Considering its ecological nature and big volume of passenger transport, railway passenger transport represents an irreplaceable sustainable system for the future. These facts and the entry of new railway carriers into this system highlight the importance of managing risks in a progressive way. This article focuses on the options of risk management when versatile and flexible tools, such as Lean tools, are set correctly. The aim of this article is to introduce a proposal for the application and a specific application of Lean philosophy in risk management which impacts train delays in railway passenger transport. From the point of view of quantitative data analysis, multiple mathematical-statistical tests have been used to assess data (e.g., Anderson–Darling test, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, Jarque–Bera test, two-tailed test, Grubbs’s test and Thompson Tau test). Also, descriptive statistics and ANOVA test (Analysis of Variance) have been applied in the process of evaluating the monitored attributes. In order to assess the data dependency, Chi-Square Test and a correlation analysis have been applied. The research outcomes focus on highlighting the need for a systematic approach for train delays and to avoid delays through risk management. The case study applies selected Lean methods to monitor train delays in selected stations within the main railway corridor of the Slovak Republic for the period from 2015 to 2018. In 2019, the results were processed and created a basis for proposing a unique software tool like an aid for risk management in the case of train delays using Lean philosophy. The flexible software includes the participation of employees, and at the same time, it respects the needs of customers. The research results provide grounds for further study of risks in a challenging environment of railway undertakings, with different types of trains, railway stations as well as entire railway networks. The processed results of the article represent valuable material for railway undertakings not only in Slovakia but also for railway organisations in V4 countries.

This contribution in a cross section way focused on the analytical determination of practical capacity of main tracks and the issue of the required capacity in the context of the comparison of national methodology used by the ŽSR and the recommended international UIC methodology. Methodology for the calculation of permeable performance within the national conditions is stipulated by ŽSR´s regulation – D24, the methodology within the international conditions for members of the UIC railway union is recommended by UIC Code 406. Both of presented methodologies have their pros and cons, which are consistently derived from this text.

In view of a continuously growing freight turnover, the road transport has been increasingly developing not only in the Slovak Republic, but also in the European Union, as a whole. The European Union, by applying legal instruments, seeks to change the situation in favour of safer, more efficient and environmentally friendly modes of transport, such as railways and inland water transport. The railway scientists and experts from the Slovak Republic compare the transport and tariff conditions for the carriage of automobile tires by railway and road transport on the route Puchov - Hannover in a real environment. Based on the comparative analysis, they assess the time and economic indicators of complexity and efficiency in the transportation of a particular type of cargo on a particular route.

The paper describes the problem between freight trains operated by Metrans Danube, a.s. and passenger trains operated by Regiojet, a.s on the line Bratislava – Dunajská Streda - Komárno. It is very important to emphasize this problem because, nowadays, mostly freight trains across the Europe drive in just in time system, it means, that shipments are delivered at exact time and place on time. At this line there are many problems not only this track line is single track, so it is necessary to cross the trains very often in traffic points which maximum 2 traffic tracks but also organizing of transport is more complicated which is provided by Railway infrastructure manager – this case is very important example when railway traffic technology slows down all processes in the logistic chain.

The contribution briefly presents analysis of payment definitions for the access to the railway infrastructure in Slovak Republic and in chosen countries of EU and consequently it suggests payment definitions for long-term track occupation by railway vehicles on ŽSR network.