The Diversity of Transport Accessibility in Polish Regions Monika Musiał – Malago’ University of Economics, Cracow, Poland [email protected].

The Diversity of Transport Accessibility in Polish Regions

Monika Musiał – Malago’ University of Economics, Cracow, Poland

[email protected]

Considerable disproportions in the development of various branches of transport in Poland have brought uneven conditions for further functioning and limited their competitiveness. As a result of the chronic under-development of the Polish transport infrastructure the spatial accessibility of many places in a regional, domestic and european scale has decreased.

Diagnosis of the current situation in Polish transport infrastructure

The existing transport system is a multibranched one. Both, carriage of people and freight, are dominated by car and rail transportation.

In 2012, 779.8 mln passengers were carried using various means of transport, which equals 40,9% less than in 2000.

The carriage of passengers

The decrease in the carriage of passengers was observed in rail and car transportation, whereas plane, maritime and inland shipping increased.

In the years 2000-2012 the share of road transportation for the carriage of passengers reached 64%.

273.2 mln passengers were carried by rail, it’s 35.0% of the total number of passengers transported using public transportation.

The share of plane shipping regarding passengers carriage volume of the country’s transport system gradually rose from the year 2000 (about 150% rise compared to the base year).

The number of passengers carried by inland shipping in 2012 was 19.8% higher compared to the year 2000.

Maritime carriage of passengers equalled 842.000 which is a 34.7% rise compared to the base year.

Transport of passengers by mode of transport (in mln)

The carriage of freight

In the years 2000-2012 the share of car transport in load shipping equalled 53.8%.

Rail freight shipping in the analyzed period showed an initial increase from 187 mln tonnes in 2000 to 270 mln tonnes in 2005 and then decreased to 241 mln tonnes in 2012.

The share of air transportation in the load carriage volume of the country’s transport system showed an increase (46% growth).

The total volume of freight carried by inland shipping in 2012 reached 4.6 mln tonnes, which is about 128% less than in 2000.

Maritime shipping equalled 7.5 mln tonnes of loads which is nearly 221 mln tonnes less than in the year 2000.

Transport of freighs by mode of transport (in mln)

Road transport

At the end of 2011 the Polish public roads network length aggregated 412263.7 km which was only approx. 10.5% more than in the year 2000.

The total length of state roads equalling 19180.8 km.

The Polish road network is characterised by high and equal density of hard-surfaced routes. The overall density of hard-surfaced roads at the end of 2011 equalled 89.7 km per 100 sq km and 72.8 km per 10 thousand of populations.

Hard surface public roads per 100 sq km in Poland in 2011

Road transport

At the end of 2012 the total length of motorways amounted 1365 km (358 km) and expressways 1052 km (193 km).

The aggregated length of motorways' networks comprised only 7.1% of all Polish state roads and for 5.5% of expressways.

Compared to the year 2000, the length of motorways and expressways increased correspondingly about 300% and more than 400%.

http://regiomoto.pl/portal/aktualnosci/nowe-autostrady-i-drogi-ekspresowe-w-polsce-raport-za-2012-i-plany-na-2013-mapy

http://regiomoto.pl/portal/aktualnosci/nowe-autostrady-i-drogi-ekspresowe-w-polsce-raport-za-2012-i-plany-na-2013-mapy

In comparison with the EU member states the major drawback of the road network in Poland is a low density of motor – and expressways.

At the end of 2012, motorway length per 100 sq km and 10 thousand of population amounted to 0.43 and 0.35, respectively.

Average figures for 27 EU member states were higher, reaching the levels of 1.6 and 1.4, respectively.

Technical condition of the surface of the domestic road network in Poland in 2012 (in %).

62%

24%

14%

good satisfactory condition unsatisfactory condition bad condition

Technical condition of the surface of the domestic road network in Poland between the years 2000-2012 (in %).

Good satisfactory condition

Unsatisfactor condition

Bad condition

2000 23.6 41.6 34.8

2005 48.9 26.2 24.9

2012 62.7 23.8 13.5

In Poland approx. 38% of roads require various types of restoration (14% of renovation needs are immediate and 24% should be scheduled for restoration within the next few years).

In the years 2000-2012 the percentage of domestic roads with bad surface conditions decreased by 110% and at the same time the number of roads in good and satisfactory condition increased by 63%.

Technical condition of the surface of the domestic road network in polish regions in 2012 (in %)

A poor condition of road infrastructure correlates with a fast increase in the number of cars.

In 2012 the number of registered passenger cars reached 18.7 mln - 486 cars per 1000 inhabitants whereas in 2000 there were 259.

In Poland, between the years 2000-2012, the number of cars increased by 87.6%, and the length of resurfaced roads by 25.3%.

Passenger cars per 1000 inhabitants

Rail transport

In 2012 the length of rail road in operation amounted to 20094 km, which means 6.4 km/100 sq km rail network density level.

Its length was reduced by 11% compared to the year 2000 (22560 km).

Air transport

In 2012, 23677.4 passengers checked in at Polish airports. In the period 2002-2012 a traffic peak in Polish airports was reached in 2008.

As far as the spatial schedule is concerned, air service can fall into two categories: handling of foreign and domestic connections. A greater growth was observed in international air service.

82 out of 91 connections are handled by foreign airlines.

Traffic peak in Polish airports between the years 2002-2012

5087,0 5394,97097,3

9808,2

13437,4

17013,718793,6

17081,618570,7

19493,720143,6

1671,6 1783,2 1705,9 1881,4 2114,2 1923,1 2009,1 1976,9 2272,23533,8

1454,50

2000400060008000

10000120001400016000180002000022000

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

years

international passenger traffic in polish airports domestic passenger traffic in polish airports

Literatures propose six methods for analysing and measuring transport accessibility:

• infrastructure–based accessibility measure (availability and quality of infrastructure),

• distance-based accessibility measure – physical/actual/time/economic distance to destinations,

• isochrone-based accessibility measure – identification of zones with the same time distance, measured by estimating a set of destinations reached in given time or at specific costs of travel,

• potential-based accessibility measure – possible interactions between sources of travel and travel destinations (variants of accessibility measured by potential-based indicators or gravity models),

• space time-geography-based accessibility measure is based on Hagerstrand’s concepts developed in the 1970s, related to individual life-paths,

• utility-based accessibility measure – assessed by the behaviours of transport users.

A commonly applied method for assessing transport policies measures accessibility with the use of quantitative and qualitative infrastructure indicators.

Transport accessibility analyses can be based on taxonomic methods which evaluate accessibility in any given branch of transport and make it possible to develop a synthetic indicator comprising various branches.

Taxonomic methods aim to compare multi-feature objects by grouping them in hierarchies and sub-sets of similar objects.

The analysis was carried out at relatively low level of desaggregation – the selection of levels for particular provinces NTS II results from difficulties in collecting statistical data related to transport infrastructure.

The synthetic ratios are based on partial indicators assigned to two groups of passengers- road and rail transport accessibility.

• The study was based on statistical data for the end of 2012.

• The analysis leads to preparing a ranking list of provinces in terms of space accessibility.

• The first step of the adopted methodology is to determine diagnosing variables.

• The starting point for this method is the standardization of the values of partial factors.

• The standardization of features is based on the zero-one formula.

• As a result of standardization, all the adopted measures become comparable, facilitating the calculation of total indicators.

• The calculated synthetic indicators for particular provinces, sequenced in monotonic order, facilitate the classification of the analysed provinces.

The analysis of road transport infrastructure is based on the following set of measures:

x1 - weighted average concentration ratio of road infrastructure

x2 - percentage of roads in a given province

x3 - percentage of motorways and expressways in a province

x4 - immediate repair need ratio

x5 - time of travel from province capital to Warsaw

x6 - time of travel from province capital to other province capital cities

x7 - time of travel from district capital to province capital cities

x8 - passenger cars per 1000 inhabitants

The analysis of rail transport is based on the following measures:

x1- weighted average rail density ratio

x2- share of a given province in the length of railways

x3- share of two- and multi-track rails

x4- minimal time of travel to Warsaw

x5- time of travel to other province capitals

The next step is the classification of provinces based on the standardised sums method followed by the determination of synthetic ratios for road and rail transport accessibility.

The synthetic ratios are presented from the largest (the highest accessibility) to the smallest values.

The bounds of intervals are calculated on the basis arithmetic deviation of and standard deviation of synthetic indicator. So provinces are divided in 4 groups:

Group I high space accessibility

Group II good space accessibility

Group III low space accessibility

Group IV bed space accessibility

Synthetic indicators- road transport accessibility

-1,000

-0,500

0,000

0,500

1,000 łódzkie

mazowieckie

małopolskie

śląskie

lubelskie

podkarpackie

podlaskie

świętokrzyskielubuskie

wielkopolskie

zachodniopomorskie

dolnośląskie

opolskie

kujawsko-pomorskie

pomorskie

warmińsko-mazurskie

road transport accessibility of polish regions

The province of Mazowsze has by far the highest space accessibility. Mazowsze is followed by Łódzkie, Wielkopolskie.

The provinces in northern and eastern Poland are characterised by the lowest transport accessibility. Transport infrastructure in these provinces is not well developed, and due to their locations travel time to other capital cities is relatively long. The following regions rank lowest on the list Zachodniopomorskie, Podkarpackie,Podlaskie.

Synthetic indicators- rail transport accessibility

-1,500-1,000-0,5000,0000,5001,0001,500

śląskie

wielkopolskie

mazowieckie

łódzkie

dolnośląskie

kujawsko-pomorskie

opolskie

małopolskie

świętokrzyskie

lubuskie

lubelskie

warmińsko-mazurskie

pomorskie

zachodniopomorskie

podlaskie

podkarpackie

rail transport accessibility of polish regions

High levels of rail accessibility are provinces Silesia, Wielkopolskie and Mazowieckie.

The provinces of northern and eastern Poland are characterised by the lowest rail accessibility, low density of rail routes, long travel time to other province capital cities as well as insufficient infrastructure (Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Zachodniopomorskie).