The second part of the article analyzes the development of transport in the Polish economy. The research was conducted in the EU-15 and EU-25 as well as in Poland across various time intervals between 1990 and 2004. The first part (see “Logistyka” No. 5/2006) assessed the trends in freight and passenger transport in the European Union by individual modes of transport.
Transport trends in Poland
In Poland, between 1990 and 2004, total transport in tonnes decreased by approximately 20%, and in tonne-kilometres (tkm) by 16%. The largest decrease in transport, both in tonnes and tkm, during the mentioned period occurred in rail transport, by 42% and 43% respectively. In road transport, there was a 20% decrease in freight volume and a 174% increase in transport performance in tkm. Downward trends also occurred in both metrics in maritime and inland waterway transport. An increase in transport occurred only in pipeline transport. Changes in freight transport by mode of transport in million tkm are presented in Table 1.
The decline in rail freight transport is associated with the restructuring of industry, a decrease in demand for the transport of low-processed goods, and an increase in demand for the transport of highly processed goods, such as electronics, machinery, and equipment, for which road transport is more suitable. Road transport accounted for 72.2% of the total volume of transport in 2004 and had the largest share in total domestic transport. Rail transport was in second place with a 21.4% share. Transport performed by other modes of transport did not reach a combined share of 7% (see Table 2). P
assenger transport in Poland, both rail and road (by bus), in 2004 compared to 1995, decreased significantly. Rail passenger transport (465.9 million passengers in 1995) reached a level of only 272.2 million passengers in 2004.
Road passenger transport by bus in the same period fell from 1131.6 to 807.3 million passengers.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 6/2006.