Rail transport in supply chain operations
<\/strong>Rail transport is particularly predestined to take over the function of transport handling for cargo flows moving on a continental scale, as well as in transcontinental relations. Rail transport is seen as a facilitator of economic, social, and environmental goals related to meeting transport needs. The purpose of this article is to present the market conditions for the development of one of the rail operators, namely PKP LHS Sp. z o.o., as an entity predisposed to participate in the operation of global supply chains.<\/p>
In accordance with point 29 of the Presidency conclusions from the Gothenburg meeting, the European Council stated that a sustainable transport development policy should counteract the growth of road traffic participants and the level of traffic congestion, noise, and environmental pollution, as well as encourage the use of environmentally friendly modes of transport and the full internalization of social and environmental costs. In essence, this means placing greater emphasis on the development of the rail sector, both in the area of conventional rail, while ensuring interoperability and intermodality.
The interoperability and intermodality of rail transport are becoming essential parameters for its participation in supply chain operations. Modern chains are understood as economic networks of enterprises (producers and service providers) cooperating with each other to process and move goods, from the raw material phase to the end-user level. The necessity of moving goods in supply chains should trigger in carriers of individual branches a desire to meet the increasing requirements of economic partners.<\/p>
The needs for cargo movement reported to rail carriers in Europe have their source in dynamic changes in the management process. They result primarily from:<\/p>
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changes in the assortment structures of production processes,<\/div>
<\/li>a shift from bulk transport to general cargo transport,<\/div>
<\/li>changes in global markets due to deepening specialization, cooperation, and trends towards the internationalization of production,<\/div>
<\/li>changes in demand for specific goods due to general structural socio-economic transformations on a national and international scale.<\/div>
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<\/ul>Despite the postulates reported within the European Union and the emerging declarations of support for rail transport, there are significant differences in the operational parameters and the scope of application of this transport in global supply chains:<\/p>
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in the EU, the average technical speed of rail is 18 km\/h in international transport, and the market share of freight transport is around 12%<\/div>
<\/li>in the USA, the average operational speed is 55 km\/h, and the rail share of the freight transport market is about 42%.<\/div>
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<\/ul>Such significant disparities indicate that there are significant barriers in European rail systems resulting in a decrease in the attractiveness of these transports in supply chains.
This is confirmed by the trends observed so far in Poland’s transport system, related, among other things, to the distortion of the intermodal structure. In the years 1990 – 2005, there was a 174% increase in transport work in road transport, with a simultaneous 37% decrease in transport work in rail transport. At the same time, there was an increase in external costs burdening the country’s economy by about 6% of GDP (generated in about 95% by road transport), causing a reduction in Poland’s economic growth potential and a deterioration in the quality of life of society. At the same time, a problem for the railway in Poland is low intermodality. A metric allowing for the comparison of the degree of development of intermodal transport is the number of terminals in relation to the length of railway lines. In Poland, it is 0.5 terminals per 1,000 km of railway lines, while in Germany it is 2.5. In Italy, it reaches a value of 1.8, and in France 1.57.
From the presented conditions, it follows that it becomes necessary to seek the most effective ways of utilizing the existing potential of railway transport and infrastructure enterprises. To this end, it is essential to identify the opportunities facing rail operators and to create conditions conducive to their development.<\/p>Potential of PKP LHS Sp. z o.o.
<\/strong>The company PKP LHS Sp. z o.o. is a company belonging to the PKP capital group. Since 2001, the Company has held a license for the transport of goods, people, and items, as well as a license for infrastructure management. The company manages a 395-kilometer section of the broad-gauge railway (Broad Gauge Metallurgy Line – LHS) from the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing Izow – Hrubieszów to the Sławków Południowy station (the total length of tracks is 524 km). The subject of activity is both the transport of goods and the management of railway infrastructure.
The LHS line is the furthest reaching broad-gauge (1,520 mm) railway line in Western Europe, directly connected to the network of railway lines in Ukraine and Russia (including the Trans-Siberian Railway). It therefore has a rail connection with Central Asian countries (primarily Kazakhstan) and the Far East (primarily China, Japan, South Korea), including ports on the Pacific Ocean. This creates favorable conditions for the development of cargo transport, which has a large share in the economic exchange of the aforementioned countries with Europe, as well as the United States of America. The location of the line is shown in Figure 1.<\/p>The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 4\/2010.<\/p>