The role of railway in handling transport services of cities and agglomerations

Abstract

The article discusses the changes in handling transport services of cities and agglomerations and the importance of railway in this aspect. Considerations on the transformation of the transport market, being the effect of changes on the market of goods and services and economic growth, the reasons for using railway transport in servicing urban and agglomeration traffic were identified. For many years the features characterizing rail transport have constituted a determinant of its use for the long-distance transport of homogeneous large cargo mass and long-distance transport of a significant number of passengers. The economic growth, and thus the increase in requirements on the transport market, caused a significant development of road transport in the short term. However, due to the negative external effects generated by this transport, as well as the change in the transport policy of individual countries and regions, steps have been taken towards the inter-branch diversification of transport services. Together with the dissemination of the concept of sustainable development, protection of the interests of future generations and limitation of emissions of harmful substances into the natural environment, innovative concepts, products and services to meet the tasks of a modern and responsible market appeared. The purpose of this article was to answer the following question: Is there a possibility for rail transport to be an important element of sustainable urban transport systems? Therefore, the article presents the concept of using an innovative system of self-propelled train compositions for handling transport services of cities and agglomerations. These train compositions, due to their limited length, their own propulsion system, and the control cabins located at both sides of the train, can be an alternative for handling feeder and transfer services in the agglomeration area, previously implemented mainly by means of road transport. The research area was Szczecin agglomeration with the city of Szczecin. Considerations and inferences were made on the basis of literature analysis, documentary method, external observation and methods of analysis and synthesis. This publication and/or research have been partially financed under the grant No 3/S/IZT/2018 financed from a subsidy of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for statutory activities.

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