Zbornik radova Koridor 10 - Kirilo Savić

3rd International Scientific and Professional Conference
CORRIDOR 10 - a sustainable way of integrations
3.3 Weaknesses of railway transport from the perspective of the owners
Analysis of weaknesses of private sidings from the owner’s perspective showed that half of the
owners, who responded to the survey indicate lower average speeds and poor railway links as
weaknesses of railway transport, influenced mainly from the lack of investment in railway infrastructure
in previous years and overpriced railway transport. Also, almost half of owners think that additional
cargo handling vehicle-wagon and vice versa, carrier delays in delivery and removal of cargo
are weakness in railway transport. A smaller proportion, 8% believe that the weakness of rail transport
is in low utilization of the wagons, 11% have problems with limiting the loading of wagons due to lack
of axle loads. In a comparison between groups of owners, most disadvantages of railway transport
indicate big users, more than half of them are the opinion that the price of railway transport is too high
and the average speed is lower than on the road. They are dissatisfied with carrier delays in delivery
and removal of cargo and poor rail links. Half of bigger customers agree that the price of maintenaning
the private siding is too high.
3.4 The possibilities of increased use of private sidings
Analysis of the conditions, under which the siding use could be increased shows that if current
railway fares would be reduced from 10 to 50% more than half of sidings users would used it on a
larger scale, almost half of respondents were convinced that railway transport would be more
frequently used in the event of more accurate delivery, or if there are less delays in
transportation. In particular smaller users would use private sidings to a greater extent if the railway
transport was less time consuming and didn’t need as much administration, and if their customers
would choose for such a service. Amongs “Other” the owners indicated that the use of the sidings is
dependent on the current situation on the market and on suppliers and customers, and that sidings
would be used to a greater extent if specific recipients and senders had available sidings.
4. MEASURES
Following the above presented problems of private sidings in Slovenia we present three groups of
measures that could be used by the Government to increase the interest of the private sector to invest
in the development of private sidings and, consequently, also to increase their use. These are namely
measures to improve the technical condition of the private sidings, measures to improve competitive
conditions for railway transport with the use of private sidings and measures to improve the availability
of public railway infrastructure.
4.1 Measures to improve the technical condition of private sidings
Maintenance of private sidings should be done in a manner that its frequency and scope is dependent
on several factors, especially on the volume and type of traffic that is carried out on private siding.
Measure 1: Adoption of a statutory instrument concerning the standards for railway
sidings maintenance.
In order to relieve the costs of mandatory maintenance of sidings for the owners of sidings, the costs
could be taken over by the Government, in whole or partially, which would mean a good financial
incentive to increase interest of owners for the use of private sidings and consequently the use of
railway transport services.
Measure 2: The takeover (partially or fully) of the costs of mandatory maintenance of
railway sidings within the framework of maintaining of public railway infrastructure.
Given into account that the siding owners highlighted the high cost of sidings maintenance as a
weakness it makes sense that in the context of state aid in Slovenia, like in Austria, the refund or tax
credit for part of the cost of sidings maintenance is also allowed. As a criterion for determining the
remuneration of maintenance costs the actual managed volume of maintained sidings per kilometer
could be used.
Measure 3: The introduction of a state aid system for the maintenance, renewal or
extension of existing railway siding and their construction.
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