Trains are often accelerated by tens of minutes, especially on the main line between Bratislava and Košice
The new train schedule speeds up connections by an average of two minutes, but sometimes by tens of minutes. For the amount of money that was available, according to railway transport experts from the Value for Money Unit (ÚHP) Rastislav Farkaš, four percent more trains will run.
“There will be more trains on the lines where there are more passengers. On average, one train kilometer, which the Ministry of Transport orders from the Slovakian Railway Company (ZSSK), will be cheaper by six percent,” said the expert in connection with the new railway timetable.
Savings in tens of minutes
On average, twelve percent of the journey will go faster by about fifteen minutes. “The biggest accelerations are on the main domestic line from Bratislava to Žilina and further to Košice, at the same time the connection to Nitra or Prievidza is speeding up very significantly. That’s savings in tens of minutes,” added an analyst from the ÚHP.
According to him, nothing will change for more than 80 percent of passengers, they will go as before. The times are the same, and the frequency of connections will be similar. He admitted that every change also brings negatives, in this case it concerns six percent of people who will take the train an average of 12.5 minutes slower.
“But that is not primarily part of the new chart. It is based on the state of the railway infrastructure and the ongoing shutdowns, where trains are delayed by tens of minutes on many lines today. Now, the travel times are becoming more realistic, i.e. the fast Bratislava-Zvolen route, which normally took around half an hour, will be twenty hours slower, it will arrive at the destination station on time and not with a delay.” explained Farkaš.
Clock mode
According to the general director of the transport strategy section at the Ministry of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic (MDV), Rastislav Cenký, the new railway timetable is a very good cooperation with the ÚHP and is the first part of a comprehensive transport reform in Slovakia.
“Through analysis, we found that Slovaks travel by train 23 percent less than the European Union average. In the new chart, we are trying to introduce the principles that were introduced already in the 80s of the last century, and we know them in the Czech Republic twenty years ago.” Cenký zoomed in.
As an example, he gave the clock mode, which will improve the utilization of train sets and the start, which has a direct impact on costs. The so-called tact nodes with a significantly reduced time for passenger transfers, even if in some cases they changed on the tracks and in the timetable.
Lower consumption of electricity and diesel
This will reduce the consumption of electricity and diesel in unit costs.
“We have prepared to strengthen train traffic on some lines that are used the most. For example, between Bratislava and Žilina by 43 percent, between Košice and Prešov, we increased the offer by 43 percent, and we tried to distribute it throughout the day so that people get used to securing it. In Považí there is an increase of up to 30 percent,” noted a traffic expert from the ministry.
There are also regions in Slovakia where rail transport is not a supporting system, does not have such potential, and where its competitive advantage over bus transport, which provides basic transport services, is not demonstrable and proven.
“There, we decided to keep rail traffic at least in weekend modes, and we moved the capacity of the trains that ran during the week to weekend times. Such routes include Tisovec – Brezno, Studený potok – Tatranská Lomnica, Banská Štiavnica – Hronská Dúbrava,” pointed out Cenký.
According to him, these are lines where trains were used by less than four hundred passengers per day, and at the price per kilometer of train and bus, this is a fundamental effect compared to the spent finances. “Here, the trains will have a tourist character, and since we wanted to start at least on the weekend, it will be strengthened in the tourist mode,” added the expert.