One of the fundamental goals of European transport policy is sustainable transport development, which takes into account economic efficiency, ecological rationality, and social legitimacy. For years, Poland has been striving to adapt its transport to modern EU requirements and standards.
These standards concern not only transport infrastructure, rolling stock, and transport technologies but also the directions of structural changes in transport systems and the integration of various modes – actions aimed at sustainable transport development. Despite the significant gap between Polish transport and the achievements of many European Union countries, some arrears are gradually being made up. Although the pace of change is often unsatisfactory, progress in many areas is clear. Unfortunately, there are also areas where compliance with EU trends is minimal. Some choices regarding the directions of transport development are highly controversial, and some trends are ignored. This may create various problems in the future for the country’s development and European integration. The purpose of this article is to identify successes, problems, and controversial choices in the process of sustainable transport development.
Achievements in adapting Polish transport to EU trends
The process of adapting Polish transport to modern standards is very complex and long-term due to:
- the distance that, in many areas, separated Polish transport from the standards adopted in the transport sectors of highly developed EU countries,
- the characteristics of transport infrastructure, especially the long implementation period of such investments and their high capital intensity,
- the necessity of making difficult priority choices (related to the aforementioned high capital intensity of infrastructure investments and the limited funds available for this purpose).
However, one can already attempt a certain balance sheet of achievements. “Successes” is perhaps a term used a bit “prematurely” in relation to the effects of transport development in Poland; nevertheless, it must be noted that although this development has proceeded slowly and with numerous setbacks, one can find positive effects of the development process so far, from the perspective of sustainable transport development, in the form of a clear improvement in the state of road infrastructure.
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Source: Logistyka Magazine