Quality of the Polish-Slovak freight transport interconnection in the context of wider European north-south relations

The ambition in the context of current EU transport and environmental policies is to change the modal split between transport modes in favour of environmentally friendly modes. Nine core network corridors have been created to support the trans-European transport network, with RFC corridors 5 and 11 connecting Slovakia and Poland in a north-south direction. This paper focuses on a basic description of the available rail infrastructure, which will be analysed in more detail within the APVV project SK-PL-23-0055 “Infrastructure quality as a prerequisite for smooth logistics flows in the Baltic - Central Europe direction”, that is solved at the Faculty of Operations and Economics of Transport and Communication, University of Žilina. In particular focus is given to the analysis of the available data from the major carrier performing the services on the routes, the nature and volumes of goods and the directional loadings of the routes. The results of the analysis will then be used in the next phases of the project to formulate proposals and identify the potential for increasing freight flows on the railway infrastructure connecting Poland and Slovakia.