Transport is one of the most important economic sectors; it directly employs around 10 million people and it is concerned in GDP approximately 5% in the European Union (EU). The White Paper of 2011 underlines the need to create new traffic models that will make it possible to meet increasing demands for services through the effective use of various modes of transport and multimodal chains to reduce the external costs of transport. One of the important tools required to ensure sustainable transport is the liberalization of the railway freight transport market, whose main objective is to increase the competitiveness of railway transport reducing the negative impacts of transport on the environment. Actual problems from the view of sustainable transport are mainly those to do with in limited capacity and the level of transport infrastructure and the major differences between the capacity and quality of transport infrastructure in Western and Eastern Europe. The aim of our research is to design measures for the creation of free and undisturbed competition in freight transport to reduce the use of public resources, improving the quality of service even while reducing the social costs of transport. Support for this primary goal will be represented by the definition and description of the complex characteristics of: traffic flows and demand on logistic systems, multimodal chain, business conditions in the transport market, the role of managers of the railway infrastructure in the railway market, system of tolls of the railway infrastructure in terms of minimum access package and additional services in selected EU countries, the social costs of transport, including quantification of external effects, natural and value indicators in relation to the quality of transport processes. The paper deals with research conditions of the liberalization of the railway freight market in the context of a sustainable transport system. We have analysed the charging of the railway infrastructure in the V4 countries and Austria in order to compare charges for model trains. The paper presents a comparative analysis of the number of rail freight operators in individual countries vs rail freight transport performance. Based on this analysis, we investigated whether the liberalization of the rail freight market is reflected in the modal split for the benefit of rail transport

Currently, passengers have access to a lot of information when planning their trip by public transport. They can use a lot of applications, which are not compatible with each other. Sometimes it can be even quite difficult to collect all relevant information. The creation of one application (Travel Companion), which contains all relevant data needed for optimal planning of a trip can make travelling by public transport more attractive. This paper identifies and describes conditions for a large market uptake of the Travel Companion approach by the end-users: the travellers. The paper deals with research of the passenger’s preferences and requirements for the travel companion. Research consists of four steps based on analyses of interaction points, interviews, and workshops. Every step of methodology brings interesting feedback on the design and functionality of the travel companion. The paper is based on particular results of the H2020 project - 730842 Governance of the Interoperability Framework for Rail and Intermodal Mobility (GoF4R).

One of the main priorities of transport policy in the EU is to take measures to support railway transport as an environmentally friendly transport mode. An interesting challenge for a railway transport operation is represented with cost items for its operation. This problem is exacerbated if transport flows are routed through a congested railway infrastructure. If some or all transport takes place on congested rail infrastructure, the carrier’s costs increase, which may ultimately lead to withdrawal from the market. The article deals with the impact of insufficient capacity on the rail carrier’s costs. We used a pre-cost calculation methodology to calculate the rail carrier’s additional costs due to the insufficient railway network capacity based on detailed calculation of train costs and proposed a methodology for carrier decision-making in case of insufficient rail infrastructure capacity. The case study showed that the use of a diversion track in case of insufficient planned rail line capacity may not be advantageous for carriers, even with a longer waiting time for capacity to be released. One of the ways to eliminate the negative effects of congested railway infrastructure is investment in the increase of its capacity.