CONTEMPORARY DIMENSIONS OF RAIL TRANSPORT

This paper offers a brief overview of the state rail transport worldwide by studying empirically the indicators for payload-distance of freight transport and for density and availability of railway lines in selected countries. Some aspects of the development of passenger rail transport in the EU have been traced as well. On the basis of the conducted analysis the more important findings were formulated regarding the current parameters of the studied transport mode. Rail transport has its place in the transport market, where we see its exploitation mainly in respect of freight carriage and less in respect of passenger carriage, but mode for overcoming spatial discrepancy stands out with a number of significant advantages, which will be a prerequisite for its intensive development at a certain point in the future.