Barriers to Transnational Passenger Rail Services in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina – A Qualitative Perspective

Keywords: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, stakeholders, barriers, railway operation, railway deterioration, Causal Loop Diagram

Abstract

Railway infrastructures and services in the countries of former Yugoslavia have been in a downward spiral since the early 1990s. There have been scattered investments to lift services up to appealing levels after the war, but a continuous downward trend persists in all important performance indicators. After war-attributed abandonment, numerous lines lost services permanently, numbers of services dwindled, especially across borders, and service speeds decreased. This research takes Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina specifically as survey objects. It aims to identify the barriers in these two countries that withheld passenger rail from a positive development as in other European countries during the same period. For this purpose we carried out 11 interviews with stakeholders in various railway-related institutions. The transcripts are analysed qualitatively with thematic analysis to gain an overview of organisational and institutional barriers for development of railways. This is followed by a cause-effect analysis with Causal Loop Diagramming. The result: ad-hoc decision-making is clearly connected to the insignificance of railways. As immediate measures to counter the downward spiral by means of strategic long term planning, we identify (1) service benchmarking, (2) a clear vision for improvement of service quality, and (3) empowerment of ministries in a long term.

References

Howkins TJ. Changing hegemonies and new external pressures: South East European railway networks in transition. Journal of Transport Geography. 2005;13(2): 187-97. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2004.04.011

Todorova MN. Imagining the Balkans. Oxford University Press; 2009.

Bilandžić D. Hrvatska moderna povijest. Zagreb: Golden Marketing; 1999.

Matkovic H. Povijest Jugoslavije, 1918-1991-2003. Zagreb: P.I.P. Pavičić; 2003.

Abramović B. Izazovi željeznice u Hrvatskoj. Obnova, časopis za kulturu, društvo i politiku. 2016;3(6): 93-106.

Brezina T, et al. Barriers to trans-national passenger rail services in the Western Balkans - The quantitative background. In: Čokorilo O, editor. Fourth International Conference on Traffic and Transport Engineering (ICTTE 2018); Beograd, Srbija: City Net Scientific Research Center Ltd. Belgrade; 2018. p. 717-24.

Abramović B, Blašković Zavada J, Brnjac N. Benchmarking of national passenger traffic in Central Europe. 22nd International Symposium EURO-ZEL 2014, 3-4 June 2014, Zilina, Slovakia; 2014. p. 1-7.

Finger M, Montero J. Railway regulation: A comparative analysis of a diverging reality. In: Finger M, Montero J, editors. Handbook on Railway Regulation - Concepts and Practice. Edward Elgar; 2020. p. 1-20.

Chavanel C. Towards a new architecture for technical regulation of Europe’s railways. In: Finger M, Montero J, editors. Handbook on Railway Regulation - Concepts and Practice. Edward Elgar; 2020. p. 241-56.

Fraszczyk A, Lamb T, Marinov M. Are railways really that bad? An evaluation of rail systems performance in Europe with a focus on passenger rail. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 2016;94: 573-91. DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2016.10.018

Schopf JM. Der ÖPNV und seine Kunden - welche Ansprüche stellen die Nutzerinnen und Nutzer? Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau (ETR) mit ETR Austria. 2016;65(6): 50-4.

Brezina T, Knoflacher H. Railway trip speeds and areal coverage. The emperor’s new clothes of effectivity? Transport Geography. 2014;39: 121-30. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2014.06.024

Preston J. Trends in European Railways over the last two decades. Built Environment. 2009;35(1): 11-23. DOI: 10.2148/benv.35.1.11

Von Arx W, et al. The development of international passenger rail services from 2007 to 2016: The case of Switzerland. Research in Transportation Economics. 2018;69: 326-36. DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2018.07.020

Tomeš Z, Jandová M. Open access passenger rail services in Central Europe. Research in Transportation Economics. 2018;72: 74-81. DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2018.10.002

Dolinayova A, Danis J, Cerna L. Regional railways transport - Effectiveness of the regional railway line. In: Marinov M, editor. Sustainable Rail Transport. Lecture Notes in Mobility. Springer International Publishing; 2019. p. 181-200. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-78544-8_10

European Commission. Roadmap to a single European transport area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system. White Paper. Luxemburg: EU; 2011.

Stoilova S. Study of railway passenger transport in the European Union. Tehnicki vjesnik. 2018;25(2): 587-95. DOI: 10.17559/TV-20160926152630

Provalis Research. QDA Miner Lite – free qualitative data analysis software. 2018. Available from: https://provalisresearch.com/products/qualitative-data-analysis-software/freeware/

Moser N. Der Einfluss der Raumstruktur und der sozialräumlichen Umgebung auf urbanes Mobilitätsverhalten im Kontext von Veränderungsprozessen. Diplomarbeit. Technische Universität Wien; 2017.

Braun V, Clarke V. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology. 2006;3(2): 77-101. DOI: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Spector JM, Christensen DL, Sioutine AV, McCormack D. Models and simulations for learning in complex domains: Using causal loop diagrams for assessment and evaluation. Computers in Human Behavior. 2001;17(5): 517-45. DOI: 10.1016/S0747-5632(01)00025-5

Kim DH. Guidelines for drawing causal loop diagrams. The Systems Thinker. 1992;3(1):5-6.

Abbas KA, Bell MGH. System dynamics applicability to transportation modeling. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 1994;28(5): 373-90. DOI: 10.1016/0965-8564(94)90022-1

Pfaffenbichler P, Emberger G, Shepherd S. A system dynamics approach to land use transport interaction modelling: The strategic model MARS and its application. System Dynamics Review. 2010;26(3): 262-82. DOI: 10.1002/sdr.451

Shepherd SP. A review of system dynamics models applied in transportation. Transportmetrica B: Transport Dynamics. 2014;2(2): 83-105. DOI: 10.1080/21680566.2014.916236

Published
2021-10-08
How to Cite
1.
Brezina T, Abramović B, Šipuš D, Shibayama T. Barriers to Transnational Passenger Rail Services in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina – A Qualitative Perspective. Promet [Internet]. 2021Oct.8 [cited 2024Mar.29];33(5):689-03. Available from: https://traffic.fpz.hr/index.php/PROMTT/article/view/3753
Section
Articles