Transport Integration for Prosperity. The Importance of Rail Connections for the V4 Internal Cohesion

2015-2018
Investor: Visegrad Fund, Strategic Grant Project No. 31510026

Aim: defining variations of possible measures which will lead to harmonization of individual V4 countries' approaches to support the cohesion of crossborder regions as much as possible.

Objective of the project: to compare transport policies of V4 member countries in the segment of public railway transport on the level of international longdistance, regional, and local crossborder connections, for which both qualitative and quantitative approaches shall be used. The comparison will be based on political-economic and transport-geographical analysis of the present situation, and on identification of capacities and risks of possible future development.

Main outputs: a set of analyses of a transport policy and transport-geographical links in the individual countries, and among them. Political-economic studies will focus on organization of public railway transport and on the way it is financed in individual countries. Fulfilment of the conditions of the European transport policy, or "railway packets", in connection with gradual liberalization of the railway market, will represent a significant aspect of the outputs.

Press release

• PRESS RELEASE - Workshop in Budapest - Jan 2017
• PRESS RELEASE - Workshop in Warsaw - Jan 2016
• PRESS RELEASE - Report from Workshop in Warsaw - Jan 2016

Participating research institutions

Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences - Charles University in Prague
The Institute of International Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague focuses on area studies and the modern history of North America, Europe and the post-Soviet area. More specific attention is paid to Central Europe and the Visegrad region. A major part of its research and analytic activities deals with current policy and related processes. Transport and transport policy have become one of the main research specializations of the Institute, which focuses on both applied and basic research.
Core staff
Tomáš Nigrin

Institute for Transport Economics, Geography and Policy - Masaryk University
The interdisciplinary research group at the Masaryk University dealing with the theoretical and practical aspects of transport economics, policy, and geography was founded in 2004. The main research themes of this group are focused on the analysis of competition within transport markets and detection of anti-competitive practices, models and methods of regulation of transport services, surveying and modeling of demand in these markets, analysing the effectiveness of infrastructure investments and operating subsidies, geographical and regional analyses of transport services, institutional analysis of the transport policy and international comparison of transport market regulation systems.
Core staff
Martin Kvizda, Zdeněk Tomeš, Daniel Seidenglanz, Tomáš Paleta, Monika Jandová

Department of Human Geography and Demography, Faculty of Natural Sciences - Comenius University in Bratislava
The Department´s scientific and research activities focus on on the geographical synthesis of social and economic activities, socio-economic regionalisation in Slovakia and other postsocialist countries, territorial and spatial analyses, evaluation, management and prognoses of the space systems, spatial networks development trends, including transport networks management, with a special focus on transport policies and their effects in spatial interactions guaranteed by road and railway infrastructures.
Core staff
Marcel Horňák

Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Budapest University of Technoogy and Economics (BME) was founded in 1782. The Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering aims to be the scientific center in the fields of transportation engineering, vehicle engineering and logistics engineering. The Department of Transport Technology and Economics has been carrying out research and education in the interdisciplinary fields of transportation engineering and economics for about 60 years, focusing on questions like strategic and operative planning, operation and management, decision support in transport and logistics, ITS development, evaluation and control of transport networks, analysis of passenger and freight transport processes also with regard to the aspects of transport safety and sustainability.
Core staff
Zoltan Bokor, Miklós Bánfi, Domokos Esztergár-Kiss

Department of Geography of Population, Settlement and Agriculture, Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences, Institute of Geography and Spatial Management - Jagellonian University
Transport is one of the issues analysed by the academics in The Department of Geography of Population, Settlement and Agriculture. The research focuses on transformation of railway transport and the role of the railways in regional and local transport systems in Poland and other Central European countries, the problems of international rail connections in this part of Europe as well as the changes and challenges for municipal transport, in particular rail-based forms of urban transit.
Core staff
Jakub Taczanowski

Warsaw School of Economics
The Warsaw School of Economics (in Polish: Szkoła Głowna Handlowa w Warszawie) is the oldest economic university in Poland. It was founded in 1906. WSE is a leading institution in the field of teaching and research in economics. Research activities, including high quality economic research in transport, are conducted in the five Collegia. One of them is the Collegium of World Economy, where Marcin Król is an assistant professor.
Core staff
Marcin Król

Department of Railway Transport, Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Žilina
Department of Railway Transport is part of the Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications of the University of Žilina. University of Žilina was established in Prague in 1953 as the College of Railways. The activity of the Department of Railway Transport is focused on technology, management and economics of transport and shipping activities of railway transport and combined transport. Department of Railway Transport orients its science and research activities especially on organization and management of technological processes in railway and combined transportation, on optimization and development of railway passenger and freight transport, efficiency of investment projects, internalization of external cost and others.
Core staff
Anna Dolinayová, Juraj Čamaj, Jaroslav Mašek