State authorities may influence the development of seaports by employing the tools of national maritime policy. On the one hand, seaports contribute to the socioeconomic development of coastal regions; on the other, they have a significant impact on foreign trade turnover. The aim of this study is to identify the major factors that have influenced the development of Poland’s seaports in the context of the country’s maritime policy. The paper examines and explains the development and transitions of major Polish seaports such as Gdansk, Gdynia, Szczecin, and Swinoujcie. In order to identify the state of the port economy the authors used public statistics and data analysis. Furthermore, they created a model of comanagement of major seaports and presented a qualitative and quantitative comparison of the development of major seaports from 2005 to 2019. It was discovered that port turnover increased, but in various ways in each of the analysed ports. The government of Poland, acting in a dual role as the coordinator of national maritime policy and the majority owner of seaports, was the most powerful decision-maker in the port economy. However initiatives to implement sustainable principles in seaports have gradually emerged through bottom-up activities of port authorities supported by local and regional authorities.

Changes in railway freight transportation in Poland at the turn of the twenty and twenty first century This study has investigated the determining factors in the development of the railway freight transportation market. One of the important issues addressed by this study has been to determine the role of the railway in the multimodal transport in Poland. The main aim of the study has been to establish the factors determining the spatial differentiation and development of the railway freight transportation in Poland. The study has characterised the freight railway infrastructure, including: railway lines and sidings, goods stations, and the transhipment infrastructure. The present study has described the process of restructuring Polskie Koleje Państwowe (‘Polish State Railways’ – PKP), the market of railway hauliers and logistics service providers, as well as selected aspects of organising railway freight transportation. The study has analysed the railway’s participation in the branching structure of transport, as well as transportation of cargo by railway, taking into account its size, commodity structure and transport routes in 1993–2012. The intensity of the freight train traffic of the PKP rail network has also been analysed. The condition of the railway infrastructure has been evaluated with regard to freight transportation and Poland’s transport policy within the scope of the railway transport development strategy. The scope of infrastructure investments in Poland in the analysed period has also been discussed. The Polish railway market’s volume of transport was the second largest in the European Union. This paper is a comprehensive study of the railway freight transportation in Poland after 1989.

Capital cities of the 49 former voivodships in Poland: selected problems of urban development The 1st of January 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of Poland’s administrative reform coming into effect. The reform reduced the number of voivodships from 49 to 16, the number of voivodship centres being reduced to 18. The studies described in this volume were aimed at assessing selected aspects of urban development in the cities which – in 1975–1998 – enjoyed the voivodship capital status. The analysis involved a total of 49 cities which were examined in terms of changes in their demography (including changes in the number of residents, balance of migration, growth rate, and age structure); administration and public service bodies; and transport connectivity and accessibility. The Introduction (Chapter 1) describes changes in administrative boundaries and rank status of the cities in question during two periods: 1945–1989 and 1989–2019. Attention is drawn to the classification of the cities, as presented in the Country’s Spatial Planning Concept. Research on the former voivodship capitals, carried out past 1998 is reviewed, a particular reference being made to those studies that deal with all the cities of interest for this volume. In Chapter 2, changes in demography of the cities studied are assessed. The assessment is based on the assumption that trends and dynamics of demographic changes greatly depend on whether a city has a voivodship centre status or not. Changes in the number of residents and change components (births and deaths, immigration and emigration) as well as the population’s age and gender structure are addressed. The trends observed in 1975–2018 in the former and current voivodship capitals turned out to be completely different. In 1975–1989, the populations of the cities were increasing, the growth dynamics being faster in those cities that received their voivodship capital status in 1975. After systemic transformations in 1989, the populations were still increasing, albeit at a clearly slower rate. Past 1998, populations of most of the former voivodship centres have experienced a considerable decline, accentuated by the large-scale economic emigration abroad, begun in 2004. On the other hand, populations of the current voivodship centres were initially declining slightly, but the trend switched over to growth at the end of the period considered. In 1975–1998, the increase of the population size in the then voivodship centres was caused by a considerable natural growth rate and a positive balance of migration. Past 1998, the population size in most of the current and all the former (31) voivodship capitals has been declining due to natural causes (deaths) and a negative balance of migration brought about by suburbanisation processes. Chapter 3 deals with voivodship centre institutions and discusses the current state of the public administration and higher-order services sector. Attention is drawn to supra-local institutions and bodies (state, self-government, justice, trade self-governance). When functioning as voivodship capitals, the cities examined hosted numerous supra-local and subregional institutions, and were very attractive for business. Centralisation operated in virtually every aspect of public life (public institutions, trade self-governance, businesses). It was distinctly visible at two levels: the national capital and the voivodship capital. Important was also the location of a city: for example, Skierniewice and Piotrków Trybunalski remained in the shadow of two large cities, Warszawa and Łódź, for which reason the two smaller towns hosted fewer institutions and administrative bodies. In addition to hosting all the central administrative bodies and institutions, the national capital groups 10% of all the public entities examined. The number of institutions is distinctly higher in the 17 cities which had been voivodship capitals prior to 1975. Among the former voivodship capitals, distinct in this respect are Radom, Koszalin, Bielsko-Biała and Częstochowa. The analysis shows also that the state administration bodies and justice institutions used to be more evenly distributed spatially (with the exception of the national capital). On the other hand, the voivodship selfgovernment and trade self-governance institutions are concentrated primarily in the current voivodship centres. Chapter 3 analyses changes in businesses and unemployment. Reports on the state of economy lack sufficiently detailed and complete data on the performance of businesses in 1975–2018. Therefore, an in-depth and reliable analysis of those businesses over the period of time in question is challenging. For this reason, the analysis focused on the period following the introduction, in 2008, of the Polish Classification of Business Activities (Polska Klasyfikacja Działalności or PKD 2007). In 2009–2018, the number of formally registered businesses was much (about 4-fold) higher in the current voivodship centres than in the former voivodship capitals. Although there are much fewer voivodship centres at present, they have always been more attractive economically for businesses than the former centres owing to the population size and the administrative status. In the current voivodship centres, the number of businesses was increasing, virtually throughout the period analysed, from 1,141 thou. in 2009 to 1,385 thou. in 2018, i.e., a 16.8% increase. The situation was different in the former voivodship centres. All the cities in that group showed fluctuations, seen as alternating increases and decreases in the number of registered businesses. As a result, over the time span of 9 years, the number of businesses increased only slightly (from 321.9 thou. in 2009 to 325.8 thou. in 2018, i.e., an increase as little as 1.22%). The highest number of businesses in 2018 (433.8 thou, i.e.,...

Analiza porównawcza ruchu pociągów pasażerskich w Polsce w latach 2010 i 2020, Prace Komisji Geografii Komunikacji PTG, 24(2), 69-82. Streszczenie: Celem artykułu było zbadanie obciążenia sieci kolejowej w Polsce ruchem pociągów pasażerskich, według stanu na początku 2020 r. i jego porównanie z początkiem 2010 r. Lata 2010-2020 to okres intensywnych inwestycji kolejowych i rozwoju rynku przewoźników regionalnych. Jednocześnie długość sieci kolejowej została skrócona. Nastąpił jednak wzrost wielkości przewozów pasażerskich i natężenia ruchu pociągów, szczególnie w ruchu regionalnym. Inwestycje infrastrukturalne i zaangażowanie samorządów wpłynęły na poprawę oferty kolei. Poprawa ta nie dotyczyła jednak obszaru całego kraju. Najbardziej widoczna była ona na terenie aglomeracji warszawskiej, wrocławskiej i poznańskiej, zaś najsłabiej w północno-wschodniej Polsce. Niekorzystnie pod tym względem wypada również pogranicze województw śląskiego i małopolskiego. Comparative analysis of passenger train traffic in Poland in 2010 and 2020 The aim of the article was to examine the load on the railway network in Poland with passenger train traffic as at the beginning of 2020 and its comparison with the beginning of 2010. The years 2010-2020 are a period of intense railway investments and the development of regional carriers market. At the same time, the length of the railway network has been shortened. However, the volume of passenger transport and the intensity of train traffic increased, especially in regional traffic. Infrastructural investments and the involvement of local governments improved the railway offers. However, this improvement did not apply to the entire country. It was most visible in the areas of the Warsaw, Wrocław, and Poznań agglomerations, and the weakest in north-eastern Poland. The border of the voivodeship is also unfavorable in this respect. Silesia and Lesser Poland.

Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego

Academic research has indicated that port competitiveness is multidimensional. Although a wide range of drivers of port competitiveness has already been determined, particular ports seem to use different sets of them at different development stages. This paper argues that significant growth in transhipment in Polish ports results from infrastructural development and mainly from enhanced hinterland connectivity. Before Poland had joined the EU, the hinterland connectivity was so underdeveloped that it was more convenient for many companies to use services of the German North Sea ports. However, with EU funds, road investments, travel times between the ports and hinterland have shortened by at least one-quarter. Moreover, the development of railway lines as well as the increase in the number of intermodal container terminals in the hinterland have also improved accessibility to the ports. Rail transport is especially significant for maintaining the competitiveness of ports at times of cutting-edge industry change, increasing the role of economies of scale in shipping.