TENDERING OF RAIL TRANSPORT SERVICES IN SLOVAKIA

The population's rising standard of living also leads to a rise in passenger demands for the quality of transport and the provision of additional services in railway transport. This factor also caused the arrival of private rail carriers on the EU rail network, including Slovakia, which opened the rail passenger transport market to competition. In line with the intentions of the EU's common transport policy to create a fair competitive environment and open the railway sector to competition, processes aimed at improving the quality of transport services and streamlining the use of public funds necessary for their operation have been ongoing in Slovakia for several years. The research is focused on the process of public procurement of transport services. On the ground of describing the principles, experiences, and mistakes in organising public tenders in railway passenger transport, the methodology of the public tender process is proposed. That is applied to a case study on the railway line Bratislava Banska Bystrica - Kosice, while Slovakia has had several public competitions. A limitation of this research is the fact that only one public tender was successfully evaluated. The issue of the allocation of transport services in the public interest needs to be solved from the point of view of compliance with EU legislation as well as ensuring this service, so that the technological efficiency of the processes for the operator that will implement these services is also ensured.