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The time when the only job of a manager was to delegate work to employees is over. At the present time, an ability to motivate employees is considered an essential skill for managers. It is complex and systematic effort of a manager to create a working environment and atmosphere supporting the inner needs and interests of employees affecting their behaviour and stimulating the performance positively. Differences in the level of workers' motivation in repair and maintenance service enterprise in the rail transport was defined using the sample set of almost 1,000 respondents and ANOVA and Duncan test. Following the results, it can be stated that the structure of motivation factors, as well as their importance, changed significantly in repair and maintenance service enterprise in the rail transport over the observation period.

In contrast to traditional systemsfor monitoring faultof the running gear of the rolling stock, thispaperproposesatechnology of noise control at the onset of defects. The authors consider the possibility of creating an intelligent system that can perform noise diagnosticswith the indication of the beginning of the latent period of the initiationof typical defects preceding faults. To this end, using the noisetechnology, sets of reference informative attributes are createdin the training process. The reference sets, in turn, are used to determine the condition of the object at the beginning of the developmentof defects by comparing them with current noise estimates. It also allows controlling the dynamics of the development of defects.

Inland transport in European Union is facing difficult but fundamental goals to achieve. Most of them are more accurately described in the White Paper on the future of Europe. By signing the Treaty of Lisbon, every European country is obligated to fulfil the legislation of the European Parliament. The main document dealing with the transport issue and ecological aspect of transport is the White Paper, which serves as a fundamental document for establishing the legislation and standards. The European Parliament legislation must be implemented in the national legislation including e. g. regulations, decisions or recommendations of the European Parliament. The legislation based on the White Paper is closely focused on transport and the related ecological aspect. Conclusions of this document lead decisions of EU to take serious actions in many different sectors. The transport sector has a significant impact on our environment and the future of the European Union. The current main goal of transport sector is to achieve reduction in emitting pollutants in our environment, and smoothly transfer to renewable sources of energy or at least trying to minimize the resources per transport performance unit.

Thisarticle focuses onthe competitive disadvantagesofexisting intermodal rail-road transport comparedwithroad transport. The authorsstate that the domestic and continental combined freight transport system can be competitive in terms of both time and price withroad freight transport. The new container transshipmentdevice contributes to a new terminal structure on the freight rail-road transport market, consideringenvironment protection requirements,and the concept has helpedthelogistics sectorto become cost competitive.The scientific novelty is that the container transshipmentrobot enablesnew technical and organizational technology solutions for combined rail-road intermodal freight transport.

Poland, due to its location in the center of Europe, is a key element of the New Silk Road (NSR), an initiative that attempts to create the shortest land connection between China and Western Europe. This article analyzes various industry reports, national development strategies up to 2030, and EU and local projects to see is the further development of NSR an opportunity for container rail transport in Poland. As it turns out, the issue discussed in the article has hitherto been outside the circle of researchers’ interest, thus the analysis is an important supplement to the existing research gap. It indicates that the further participation of Poland in the Chinese One Belt One Road initiative is a great opportunity for the economic growth of the Republic of Poland (RP).

An important component of the production and export of grain is the system of transportation of grain from its producers to grain reloading terminals. Among the means of transportation of grain the leading place is occupied by the railway, which is able to provide uninterrupted multi-tonnage transportation of grain from producers to the places of its accumulation and shipment to sea vessels. However, there are some problems in the internal and external operation of grain terminals, which has necessitated these studies. The purpose of the study was to investigate the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the flow of grain from the railway to the grain terminal to improve its efficiency. The object of the study was the technological process of receiving grain from the railway at the grain terminal; The subject of the research was grain crops, as well as data on daily revenues of grain by railway transport at the grain reloading terminal of LLC «Ukrelivatorprom» for three calendar years — from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014. The studies were conducted on the basis of the processing of the data of the invoice logs for each year of the research, which summed up the amount of daily transported grain (net). Further processing of the obtained was performed by the combined graphoanalytical method, for which on the basis of tables for each investigated year the corresponding histograms were constructed and the necessary indicators were determined. It was found that maize had the highest volumes of grain coming from the railways in 2012–2014, followed by wheat in 2012 and rapeseed in 2013–2014. Barley was the third, except for 2013, in which its volumes were the smallest among the main crops that came to LLC «Ukrelevatoprom» in the years studied. It is shown that the major share was occupied by cereals (67.1… 78.1%), followed by oilseeds (15.1…26.7%), and the smallest was occupied by legumes (2.77…6.8%). The duration of the annual grain intake periods, which amounted to 315, 331 and 333 days, respectively, was determined for 2012–2014. Annual, daily average and maximum grain yields were determined, as well as daily and annual irregularity coefficients of grain supply. The actual coefficients of the daily irregularity of the grain input from the railway in the period 2012-2014 were respectively Kdaily = 1.62; 1.86; 1.79, and monthly irregularities respectively K mont. = 1.31; 1,40; 1.35. According to the standards such coefficients have values Kdaily = 2.5 and Kmont. = 2.0, which allows to use them for design and verification calculations of grain terminal equipment in technological processes of grain acceptance from railway transport.

Management culture plays a vital role within organizational culture, channalizing the promotion of certain values and conduct, which serve for the company’s objectives and achieved through human resources management instruments. In rail transportation, the concept of organizational culture is highly exhaustive, partially invisible and very difficult to measure. Therefore, any intervention on said culture starts with a diagnosis in its regard, being useful in collecting data on the analyzed organization progress. Such is the purpose of this work, further used to analyze the ascension of theoretical preoccupations and practical approaches on the organizational culture in the state-owned rail companies, the new vision being subsequently echoed over the human resources within modern companies and the new type of management involved.

The article is devoted to the problem of infrastructural restrictions that hinder the development of high-speed freight transportation by rail in the Russian Federation. The relevance of the chosen topic is confirmed by the presence of a significant number of scientific publications that reflect the national specifics of the modern development of freight transportation using HSR and their infrastructure. The purpose of the article is to determine the infrastructural constraints that hinder the development of freight transportation in HSR transport systems tailored to the Russian specifics of infrastructure development. The object of the study is the infrastructure of railway transport and the rolling stock fleet, the subject is high-speed freight transportation. The main methods used in the study are an analysis and systematization of scientific publications on the topic, a quantitative analysis of open-source data, and interviews with Russian experts in the field under study. In the course of research there have been systematized the infrastructural constraints that hinder the development of high-speed freight transportation in Russia, and the possibilities of using special rolling stock have been considered. According to the results of the study of the Russian service market, there are determined the prospects for its further development through the introduction of a new type of railway transport service, “container — express”, and the factors preventing its successful adaptation. The results obtained can be useful both to the business community in terms of developing strategies and tactics for the introduction of high-speed container freight transportation into the segment of the Russian market, and to regulatory authorities in the field of transport in terms of promoting innovative business models and improving the quality of transport customer service.

An important role in ensuring sustainable development is assigned to the transport system. This is due to the fact that transport is the most important tool for solving social, economic and technological problems, and its functioning is accompanied by a negative impact on the environment, the occurrence of road accidents, causing harm to health. Planning as the most important management function allows to increase the socio-environmental safety and economic efficiency of the activities of railway transport enterprises, which means improving the quality of work. In the article, the authors compared approaches to strategic planning in the context of the concept of sustainable development of transport companies. The mechanism for the implementation of the ecological strategy of railway transport, which meets the requirements of economic efficiency, environmental safety and social responsibility, is disclosed. A block diagram of planning the socio-economic efficiency of the activities of railway transport enterprises in the system of environmental management is presented.

A rescheduling algorithm for trains on a single-track railway was developed in case of disturbances that would cause conflicts between trains. This algorithm is based on mixed integer linear programming (MILP) with speed-up routines. The model considers station capacities explicitly (i.e., the number of available tracks for meeting and overtaking operations). Because the model is too hard for the solvers (CPLEX in this study) to tackle, three speed-up routines were devised when rescheduling trains. These routines are a greedy heuristic to reduce the solution space, using the lazy constraint attribute of the solver and a multiobjective approach to find a good initial feasible solution that conforms to actual railway operation. The algorithm was tested on a hypothetical rail line for different sizes of timetable instances with disturbed trains in a maximum two-hour time horizon. It managed to solve the hardest instances within a three-minute time limit thus minimizing the total weighted delay of rescheduled trains. The optimality gap metric is used to show the effectiveness and efficiencies of the speed-up heuristics developed.

The algorithm is proposed for the automated control of displacement of the load overall center of gravity relative to transversal and/or longitudinal planes of symmetry of the car during railway transportation and decision-making about availability of commercial damages upon results of the car wheel weighting under way by the weighting equipment in cluded in the set of equipment of the systems of the automated commercial visual inspection of trains and cars. The baseline data for calculations includes results of the car wheel weighting and relative error of measurement of the loads with scale set during certification, and the car container weight accepted according to the data of the car in the Automated database of the freight car fleet of JSC “RZD”. Algorithm of the automated control of each type of displacement includes calculation of the actual displacement of the overall load center of gravity in the car, minimax assessment of the calculated value with regard to the error of determination of the parameters values used for calculation, and the conditions of decision-making about availability of commercial fault. Algorithm of static modeling of the bogie wheels loads on the rail is presented, in which the probabilities of excess of the regulatory maximum allowable value by the actual displacement are determined by the Monte Carlo method (loads of eight wheels are randomly broken out with assumption that distribution of their values is normal). Results of static modeling along with the analysis of the data from transportation documents and video image of the car with the freight allow the operator of the train and car visual commercial inspection station to make decision about necessity of the car field inspection for establishing the fact of commercial fault. Examples of calculation according to the proposed algorithm are provided for the case of control of displacement of the load overall center of gravity relative to the transversal plane of the car symmetry, including comparison with calculations without taking into account the errors. Proposed algorithm can be used in the automated train and car commercial inspection system under way during railway transportation as the element of the digital intelligent technology of commercial inspection being developed in the JSC “RZD”.

In the history of Poland after 1945, the functioning of the railway was one of the most important elements of everyday life – great migrations, modernity, commuting to work or holidays, military or employment. The largest transport in history was recorded by the state carrier at the end of the seventies. In reality, however, the activity of PKP was paid for by numerous compromises – outdated rolling stock, organizational structure and network in fact reflecting the beginning of the 20th century, the pursuit of electrification of almost all sections with a limited degree of motorization, mass transport and the abandonment of many potential customers. The aim of the article is to summarize the state of research and indicate questions that will allow to answer the question posed in the title. The inspiration came from the thesis of M. Jarząbek, expressed a few years ago, that the railway in this epoch from a symbol of modernity became an unwanted choice out of necessity.

Since 2011 regular freight rail services have been established between the European Union and China. This article analyses the development of these links – the Eurasian Landbridge – and argues that its origins were market-driven in response to demands of lead firms in Eurasian value chains. The rail services are consistent with EU and Chinese hopes for improved connectivity, reflected in major foreign economic policy announcements by the Chinese President (The Belt and Road Initiative) and by the European Commission (Connecting Europe and Asia). The resulting connectivity is likely to survive any bilateral political debacles because the economic foundation is strong.

Przełom pierwszej i drugiej dekady XXI w. zapoczątkował okres pozytywnych zmian na rynku usług transportu kolejowego w Polsce. Realizacja projektów modernizacyjnych przyczyniła się do znaczącej poprawy parametrów technicznych wielu linii kolejowych, a działalność spółek samorządowych zmieniła negatywne postrzeganie kolei przez pasażerów. Mimo regularnych wzrostów w statystykach przewozowych, poziom wykorzystania kolei w skali kraju pozostał wciąż na relatywnie niskim poziomie w porównaniu do innych państw Unii Europejskiej. Dlatego też problematyka zachowań transportowych i możliwości kształtowania popytu na transport stała się istotna zarówno z punktu widzenia badań naukowych, jak i działalności praktycznej. Zagadnienia te są jednak wciąż relatywnie słabo rozpoznane, przede wszystkim ze względu na utrudniony dostęp do odpowiednich danych o liczbie pasażerów na poszczególnych odcinkach sieci kolejowej. Niniejszy artykuł stanowi próbę uzupełnienia luki badawczej w tym zakresie na gruncie geografii transportu. Jako cel niniejszego opracowania przyjęto identyfikację prawidłowości w rozkładzie przestrzennym przewozów pasażerskich i jego związków z rozkładem oferty przewozowej. Badanie zostało przeprowadzone dla obszaru województwa dolnośląskiego, którego sieć połączeń pasażerskich tworzy przykład dobrze rozwiniętego i względnie zamkniętego regionalnego systemu transportu kolejowego. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport plays an important role in the economy of any country. Efficient and developed transport infrastructure of various modes of transport significantly affects the availability of transport services, and consequently, the well-being of citizens. This article presents an analysis of the volume of passengers and cargo transport using rail and road transport in Poland in 2009-2019. These analyses were carried out based on data obtained from the Central Statistical Office. All data concerns Polish entities that provide services in the field of passenger and freight transport in Poland and focuses on such information as the volume of passengers and cargo by individual means of transport, broken down into domestic and international transport. Further, the presented analyses concern the length of the available rail and road routes, tracks, the size of the rolling stock as well as the groups of transported loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empty wagon redistribution, train formation, routing and scheduling are complex problems for large railways, many of which currently have or are planning dedicated freight railway corridors (DFC). DFC operations due to their unique characteristics require research and new models for better operations planning. The rolling-stock, being expensive assets, need to be utilised in an optimal manner while meeting service quality levels. Motivated by Indian DFC, we present an integer programming formulation of the dynamic problem of empty distribution and train scheduling in DFC and discuss associated modelling issues. By unifying the separate problems into a single and dynamic model, we have developed a framework for more effective rolling stock utilisation. Based on this optimization model, an interactive decision support system is proposed for better decision-making on rolling-stock allocation and train scheduling. Extensive experiments and systematic analyses for a case of Indian DFC highlight the potentialities and effectiveness of the proposed DSS for DFC operations planning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Resilience is the ability of an object to retain its basic functions in the case of adverse events from an external or internal environment. Adverse events can jeopardize the operation of an object or cause it to become completely inoperable. The assessment of static resilience should be dealt with mainly by objects that are included in local, regional, national, and international critical infrastructure. ritical infrastructure is the basis of today's modern functioning society.The paper is focused on design of the static resilience evaluation of objects in the rail transport. The proposed method of static resilience assessment is based on safety pillars and is applied in a case study to a specific object of the rail transport. This approach is original in the conditions of the Slovak Republic.

Preventive workplace programs are one of the optimal organizational models for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases in the workingage population. Corporate health programs allow to effectively influence the lifestyle of employees, which makes it possible to reduce human resource risks due to morbidity and increase labor efficiency. First, programs for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases are being implemented. A number of researchers report that implementing prevention programs in the workplace can reduce the number of people with bad habits. The effectiveness of preventive workplace programs largely depends on the mechanisms of their implementation. A feature of railway companies is the presence of a large staff of employees of various specialties. Many factors affecting health are, in one way or another, related to the workflow, since most railway companies operate continuously. Low health literacy of railway workers on health protection and disease prevention was noted. Measures such as financial incentives, preventive counseling, the creation of personalized health profiles and the availability of healthy food in the workplace have been shown to be effective. The review also discusses Russian corporate preventive workplace programs.

The article discusses the issue of using simulators of traction vehicles in railway transport in Poland. The aim of the article is to present on the basis of legal regulations and the resulting requirements of existing solutions and proposals for the use of traction vehicle simulators in the process of training and improving the skills of drivers in Poland. The analysis of legal regulations and basic problems related to the implementation of traction vehicle simulators in the process of training drivers in Poland were made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience is the ability of an object to retain its basic functions in the case of adverse events from an external or internal environment. Adverse events can jeopardize the operation of an object or cause it to become completely inoperable. The assessment of static resilience should be dealt with mainly by objects that are included in local, regional, national, and international critical infrastructure. Critical infrastructure is the basis of today's modern functioning society. The paper is focused on design of the static resilience evaluation of objects in the rail transport. The proposed method of static resilience assessment is based on safety pillars and is applied in a case study to a specific object of the rail transport. This approach is original in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Increases in means of transport, developed transport networks, and modernization dependent on computer technology not only lead to huge security demands but also require preventive measures and vulnerability assessments of key elements of transport infrastructure. The analyses carried out have shown that, though the importance of transport continues to grow, there is currently no system for assessing the vulnerability of essential elements that are necessary to keep rail transport safe and operational. Taking into account a number of criteria, the team of authors identified key elements of the railway transport infrastructure—bridges, tunnels, the width of the track, and the marshaling yard. The criteria applied included the significance and uniqueness of the element, its technical parameters, the difficulty of repair after possible damage, potential risks related to the location, and the analysis of rail safety based on statistical data and safety reports. The aim of this contribution is to present a multi-level model for assessing the vulnerability of key elements of rail transport infrastructure. The authors proceeded from the hypothesis that the vulnerability of key elements can be assessed using quantitative and qualitative parameters of the individual elements. The added value of the model is the methodological basis for a comprehensive vulnerability assessment system that will allow competent authorities to objectify the process of vulnerability assessment of key elements and to set up appropriate safeguards to enhance rail safety. The proposed model was verified on the Zilina-Vrútky track section, which is considered one of the most important railway junctions in Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planning the extent of transport services within a selected territory is a topical issue especially in the context of developing integrated transport systems. The objective of this research study is to design a sustainable system of public passenger transport that would be an alternative to expanding individual transport. The implementation of a quality and efficient transport service is a relatively complex process, since, currently, there are no generally applicable principles for its design. This manuscript presents general results of research aimed at solving the problem of transport service within a selected territory issue with a focus on rail transport as an efficient transport system representing a backbone of a transport system. The subject of the investigation is to compile a set of factors affecting the design of the transport concept. The output of the manuscript consists in a proposal of a generally applicable procedure including a calculation of transport potential and characteristics of the inputs. Subsequently, based on the resulting values, it will be possible to determine the extent of the transport services provided by rail transport in any territory, which will contribute to a more efficient and high quality theoretical graph of train running.

The overall contribution of the railway sector in the American economy is substantial. Since 2000, the volume of rail freight transport services in the United States has remained on a balanced and invariably high level, even though the total length of the railway network has declined. Over the recent years, owing to the deployment of advanced software and state-of-the-art technologies, rail freight transport has been performing more effectively than ever. This article addresses a study of the rate of GDP changes compared with measures reflecting the transport services performed in the years 1995-2015. This study comprised the transport performance achieved by means of railways (in billion tkm) against other transport sectors within 2000-2016 and addresses the volume of freight transport services performed in the American transport network. The authors discussed the mechanism functioning of rail freight transport, which is becoming an increasingly attractive means of transport, with reference to the intermodal freight transport, including the double-stack system. They have analysed the share of intermodal transport in the structure of domestic and non-domestic freight transport services in 2017. Furthermore, the latest observed trends in the American railway network in the sphere of the use and implementation of the state-of-the-art technologies supporting railway traffic management was brought to light with regard to the improvement of safety and assisting the relevant authorities.

One of the main trends of modern reality is the rapid growth rate of the service sector. The modern level of development of the leading countries of the world shows the dynamic development of the ser-vice sector and their market, and the level of development of the service sector is a criterion of social progress.The development of the service sector and its improvement in meeting the needs of society are directly related to innovation. Also one of the indicators of the development of the service sector is the competitiveness of services, which is associated with the level of innovation in each service enterprise. The purpose of the study is to determine the prospects for the development of new forms and methods of customer service of JSC «Kazakhstan Temir Zholy» on the basis of innovative activity.The processes of globalization and changing technological structures form modern challenges for railway transport.The development of information and telecommunication systems, high-speed rail transportation technologies, globalization and optimization of logistics chains with the integration of various types of transport create the prerequisites and opportunities for a fundamental transformation of railway transport.When writing the article, the works of domestic and foreign scientists, materials of scientific and practical conferences, information resources of the Internet were used. The article discusses the innova-tive activity of the enterprise, innovative forms of service of JSC «Kazakhstan Temir Zholy». Proposed measures to improve the innovative forms of service JSC «Kazakhstan Temir Zholy».

When dealing with rail transport, whether we deal with aspects of domestic or international rail transport, the provisions of GO no. 7/2005 for the approval of the Romanian Railways Regulation and the Romanian Rail Transport Regulations for Internal Transport and the Convention on International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) of 9 May 1980 and Uniform Rules for the International Carriage of Goods Goods (CIM) for international transport.

Relationships between the activities of bus carriers and rail passenger traffic (and the railway offer) are examined in this article. The study was carried out in peripheral areas located at the Polish and Czech borderlands in Lower Silesia province. High quality rail transport generally increases the demand for transport services. Therefore, the proper development of transport offer plays a key role in the functioning of public transport systems, the backbone of which is rail transport. The study also shows that under conditions of transport market deregulation, bus carriers have developed a competitive network which is not complementary to rail transport. As a consequence, the deregulation of the transport market has increased the risk of transport exclusion.

Train crew management is an imperative task in a passenger railway system and is typically decomposed into two sub-problems: crew scheduling problem and crew rostering problem. The decomposition can make the problem easier to solve but may produce degraded solutions. In this paper, we propose a formulation to integrate these two critical sub-problems and develop a branch-and-price-and-cut algorithm and a depth-first search-based algorithm to solve the composite problem. The numerical results show that an integrated framework can yield better solutions than the decomposition strategy. Furthermore, results also show that the rostering constraints have a more notable effect on the results compared with the scheduling constraints in the integrated framework. This type of observation can only be accurately characterized when these two sub-problems are considered in an integrated manner.