Main Problems of Railway Cross-Border Transport Between Poland, Germany and Czech Republic

Abstract

Railway cross-border transport is a special case of railway transport, which, due to the necessity of crossing the state border, raises many difficulties. They result from factors, among which the most important are other power systems, control systems, a variety of regulations regarding traffic management or even problems with communication, resulting from the different languages. These difficulties involve a number of consequences for the fluency and efficiency of transportation, but more importantly, have negative effects on safety. The article describes the main problems of cross-border transport on the example of Poland and two neighbouring countries (Germany and Czech Republic), which are also members of the European Union. For this purpose, in cooperation with the Polish railway undertakings, an analysis was carried out of processes conducted by these in the field of cross-border transport and identifies the main problems in this area. As part of the conducted research, potential solutions and improvements were also proposed. The article focuses solely on the issues of crossing the border and manoeuvring operations at stations close to the German and Czech borders, inasmuch as these processes constitute the largest area of activity of Polish railway undertakings within the framework of rail cross-border transport.