This article is centered on possible approaches to efficiently organized regional rail transport. The authors' aim is to examine the conditions for providing public transport and the impact on transport planning. Emphasis is focused on the assessment of the planning process, public service obligation and operating costs of regional rail transport. Based on this, a method for selecting the appropriate vehicle type and its capacity is proposed, considering operational aspects, changes in transport demand and the cost-effectiveness of the chosen solution. The method extends the portfolio of existing possibilities and has the ambition to contribute to responsible and efficient decision making in defining the conditions of tendering, sizing the operational concepts and determining their key parameters. The authors validate the method on the case of regional rail transport in the Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. The verification is focused on the selection of suitable trainsets in rail passenger transport with respect to the demanded vehicle capacity and the given timetable. Emphasis is placed on the design of an efficient operational concept regarding the existing technical parameters of the lines, the expected travel demand and technological development of infrastructure in the region. Data sources included public transport census facilities, regular transport surveys and publicly available contract documents including cost budgets.
Fridrišek et al. (Thu,) studied this question.