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Defining of Matrices for assessment of Development and evaluation of Railway Transport by Identifying Technological and Economic factors

Over the recent fifteen years there has been intense discussion in the Republic of Croatia about the need to develop railway transport based on the White Paper – European Transport Policy and EU Directives directing the activities towards separation of the railway transport from the railway infrastructure, opening of the railway transport market, financial consolidation of railway lines, construction of inter-operational Trans-European network of railway lines and raising of transport safety and ecological standards. Apart from huge efforts and changes, the restructuring of the railway companies is progressing relatively slowly and without any major development shifts in comparison to the competitive road transport. The main reasons for such a condition may include the need for high investments into the interoperability of the railway lines network, different legal regulations among member countries (especially noticed in the aspect of transport security, engine staff licensing requirements, needs for the formation of regulatory bodies, raising of the quality of service), shortage of modern qualified management of railway companies, etc. The reason for this is because in small-size European rail companies the majority of national operators in cargo transport fail to qualify for the market competition thus getting even weaker in relation to road competition and becoming “easy prey” for big international rail operators. Big European rail carriers are primarily interested in operating on the Trans-European network of railway lines thus additionally reducing the operation on local railway lines which has direct negative consequences on the decrease of railway and the increase and development of road transport beyond the Corridor routes, reduction of safety in transport, increase of harmful impacts on environmental protection, increase in the number of unemployed, physical destruction and prevention of regional development of European countries. The railways in Croatia – Hrvatske željeznice have been for a number of years going through the restructuring process and modernisation in order to become competitive on the market. In the area of cargo transport one of the biggest problems occurs in searching for the selection between: profitable transports and transports of public interest which are often non-profitable, which is best seen for transport in cases of carrying low-value mass cargo, transport of cargo on unprofitable and local railway lines with low operation and transport of cargo on technically demanding and difficult railway lines (e.g. railway lines Ogulin/Oštarije – Knin – Split). The division of the Croatian Railways into four new enterprises out of which HŽ Cargo is formed as the rail carrier in cargo transport, has meant the end to the possibility of financing unprofitable transports. Therefore, it is extremely important to find a development business model in the future period. The HŽ Cargo development strategies can be started by finding and defining suitable, optimal matrices of development, evaluation and research of railway transport whose methodological forms for the evaluation of the technological and financial attractiveness, the user accessibility and in general the competition in transport supply in this paper are based on the GE matrix and ADL matrix.

railways; attractiveness; availability; competitiveness; transport; development; assessment; GE and ADL matrices; technological and economic factors

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