Road transportation is outcompeting rail in Poland. That is the primary conclusion of bi-annual consultations of Poland’s Office of Rail Transport (ORT) with parties in the rail freight sector. However, as respondents point out, there is potential for improvements in the competitiveness of rail.
According to ORT, the share of rail logistics in Poland is much lower than road transport. Road transport services approximately four times as many goods as rail, which indicates that there are numerous barriers to rail transport, ORT says.
Freight forwarders, rail operators and rail customers identified various underlying causes for the imbalance between the two modalities in Poland. Firstly, rail is more expensive and less flexible than road transportation. This is exacerbated by the fact that road transportation gets disproportionate access to infrastructure, and that the rail sector faces additional costs for the use of railways and formal requirements, according to ORT.
How to support rail freight?
According to Ignacy Góra, President of ORT, respondents call for equal opportunities for road and rail. ‘In the opinion of market representatives, this should be reflected in ensuring the costs of access to infrastructure at a level comparable to road transport, simplifying formal procedures on the railways and financing development projects. The railway has unused possibilities for transporting various groups of goods, therefore it is necessary to popularise this type of transport and start work on dedicated infrastructure investments,’ he says.
Popularising rail transport, according to the consultations’ participants, should include the promotion of containerisation. Containerisation is supposed to enable the transportation of a wide range of cargo and open up the rail market to more types of goods. Meanwhile, Poland would simultaneously need to expand infrastructure for the handling of containers, as well as semi-trailers, entire sets and swap bodies to enable intermodal transportation.
Besides policy adjustments and additional infrastructure investments, respondents pointed to cooperation within the sector as a tool to improve its competitiveness. Infrastructure managers and terminal operators could enhance their cooperation by speeding up procedures, ensuring effective communication, adopting a flexible, cooperative stance and even increasing internet bandwidth, according to the survey. At the same time, most respondents assessed cooperation within the market positively.
While consultation participants expressed their reservations about future developments of rail in Poland, they remained optimistic about opportunities for intermodal transport.
RailFreight Summit 2024
Are you interested in learning more about the Polish rail freight market, its performance and significance for the broader CEE region and the best practices adopted to tackle current challenges? Then the RailFreight Summit 2024, taking place between 15 and 17 April in Warsaw, Poland, is the perfect occasion to get in touch with industry professionals and dive deeper into the topic.
This year’s edition of the RailFreight Summit turns the spotlight on trending issues like the TEN-T expansion, connections with Ukraine, significant projects like RailBaltica and their potential for the creation of more efficient logistics corridors, Poland’s role as a logistics node and a performance assessment of intra-European and Eurasian services.
You can check the event’s programme here and secure your participation ticket here. Additionally, do not miss the chance to explore the networking and site tour possibilities that could provide excellent opportunities for boosting your business in Poland and the CEE region.
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