Economic History of the Railway Network in the Czech Republic - Myths, Mistakes and Illusions in Economic Policy and the path dependence of Railways

5 Oct 2015 Rail Transport series 2006-2007

Martin Kvizda

1. ed. Brno: Masaryk University, 2006. 84 p. Rail transport. ISBN 80-210-4219-2

Compared to the rest of Europe, the development of the railway network in the territory of today's Czech Republic has undergone a very diversed development, and this diversity has had a crucial influence on the efficiency of the operation at the time of its creation and even today. This text aims to show that the railway network in the Czech Republic originated in a situation which only in some cases convened with the assumption of economically efficient operation and that it is illusory to believe that the privatization and liberalization of railway transport services will mean to the future their preservation or restoration in scope and quality, as envisaged by the concept of rail revitalization.

In the publication there is defined eight basic types of creation of the railway lines in the Czech Republic in the context of economic and political reality; Based on this typology, the Czech railway network is graphically and numerically analyzed. The ambition of this text is to enrich the current economic debate about the state and future of rail transport in the Czech Republic about the historical context and to refute some mistakes and clichés that distort economic analyzes and political decisions.

Full text to download here: Kvizda_studie_2006