ABSTRACT
The chapter begins with a brief analysis of the volume of passengers carried out in Poland by land and air in recent years in order to evaluate the market share of railways and compare to other European Union’s countries. The analysis shows that the system of HSR operating in many European countries makes possible to maintain a significant railway market share of passenger transport.
The HSR system planned in Poland requires designing and preparing a modern transport offer, based on contemporary principles of the passenger transport organization. This chapter presents the theoretical basis in this scope. The Polish systematics of railway passenger services and theoretical classification of passenger flows were defined and characterized. The development and types of train schedules that can be used on the HSL were outlined. Subsequently, the technical, economic and commercial determinants of the optimal train’s speed choice were analysed.
The modern passenger transport strategies were characterized and the basic principles of traffic forecasting were discussed in the main part of the chapter concerning the organization methods of passenger services. The principles of formation of the network connections in the range of train routes and frequency of connections were presented. The principles of the organization of rolling stock operation and staffing were described. All of the above elements of the plan were examined taking into consideration the optimization criterion.
The preliminary assessment of the possibility of increasing the share of rail transport in the Polish market after the introduction of the HSR system was presented in conclusion.
