Situation in Railway Sidings Operation in Slovakia Based on the Selected Criteria

The railway transport sector in Slovakia has recorded significant changes in recent decades, which were related to the change in the orientation of the national economy as well as the creation of a single European railway market. The transformation of the national economy and the railway market has also had an impact on the operation of railway sidings. The number of active railway sidings gradually decreased and basically copied the development trends in the area of the share of railway transport in the transport market. However, the position of railway sidings in the railway transport system still has a significant share today and it is therefore necessary to know the effects of various factors in railway transport on their operation. Many railway sidings have a valid operating licence however, their transport performance is very poor or none. On the other side there are railway sidings with expired operating licence which abolition is protracted, financially and legally demanding. Nevertheless, the railway siding is very important part of rail freight transport operation. The paper focuses on the examining of the railway siding performance share in overall rail transport performance and it contains dependence analysis of railway siding performance to selected criteria: total transport volume in international transport, transport price and number of railway siding service. Partial goal of paper is the analysis of active and no-active railway sidings.