Transport Yearbook 2017

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Transport Sector Development in 2017

INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure expenditures

The reduction in the overall volume of transport infrastructure expenditure continued also in 2017, even though with 1.5%, it was significantly lower than in the previous year and reached in total 42.8 billion CZK. In absolute figures, this decrease amounted to 670 million CZK. Even though the 2016 decrease did not reach the level of years 2009-2014, it was still rather substantial and represented approximately 24%. The drawing of the remaining resources from the Operational Programme Transport was one of the reasons behind the 2015 increase in investments when compared to the previous period. Overall, the development trend of investment expenditure of the past 20 years can be characterised as increasing over the period 1993-1997, as stagnating over the next four years, i.e. until 2001, followed again by an increase until 2008 when the effects of the economic and financial crisis emerged and the trend thus changed again into a decreasing one. The volume of investment financial resources spent on infrastructure has been decreasing from 2009 to 2013, when it was the lowest since 2001, i.e. lowest in the past twelve years and amounted to only 1/3 of the 2008 value. In 2008, almost 83 billion CZK were invested into transport infrastructure, this being the maximum financial volume of the past 20 years.

Similarly, as in the preceding years, also in 2017 the majority of investment financial resources were provided by the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure (SFTI); its share of the total amount reaching approximately 91% which is similar to the 2016 level. The total amount of invested costs into transport infrastructure from the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure reached the value of almost 39 billion CZK, an almost identical value as in 2016. In addition, the SFTI budget also provided investment expenditure for building of cycling paths. The total volume amounted to almost 980 million CZK in years 2020 – 2017, of which 131 million were spent in 2017.

In 2017, investment expenditure in transport infrastructure represented 0.85% of GDP (excluding expenditure into local roads and other infrastructure for urban public transport), which is a year-on-year decrease of 9%; this indicator thus is approximately at the same level as in 2012. The respective figures for investment expenditure (excluding expenditures into local roads and other infrastructure for urban public transport) were 0.95% of GDP in 2016, 1.26% of GDP in 2015, 0.78% of GDP in 2014, 0.71% of GDP in 2013 and 0.87% of GDP in 2012. As the amount of investment expenditure into infrastructure in 2010 represented 1.7% of GDP, the 2017 value represents a half of that amount.

After the reduction in 2016, there was again an increase in the volume of investment resources spent on roads in 2017. The increase reached almost 13% and the investment costs were higher than in 2015; nevertheless, the total investment expenditure in roads reached only half of the 2009 value. The decreasing trend lasted for several years, until 2014. Investment expenditure in class II and class III roads, namely roads in the ownership of regions, amounted approximately to 6.8 billion CZK in 2017, i.e. 1.5 billion more than in 2016. The percentage share of total investment costs into roads of the total investment expenditure of 26% was similar than in the previous year, but significantly lower than in 2015 when it accounted for almost half of the total investments.

The decrease in investments into railway transport infrastructure continued also in 2017. The year-on-year decrease represents almost 20%, but when compared with 2015, the investment costs were less than a half, returning to the 2010 level. Investment costs into railway infrastructure were going down from 2009 until 2014, followed by a significant increase in 2015.

As for other investment expenditure in 2017, a decrease of more than 28% was recorded in inland waterways infrastructure and also in airport infrastructure, but with a reduction of only less than 5%. On the contrary in pipeline transport, the costs increased almost twofold.

After several years of stagnation until 2013, an increase in 2014 by approximately 20%, a year-on-year increase of more than 50% in 2015 and stagnation in 2016, the total transport infrastructure repair and maintenance expenditure went down again in 2017 by 7%. There were no substantial changes in the 8 years before 2014 and thus this type of expenditure did not follow the steep declining trend in general investment expenditure of the previous years. The measures aimed at savings did not affect this area so much and in 2013, even a slight increase was observed not exceeding 1%.

Speaking about individual transport modes, a slight increase in repair and maintenance expenditure not exceeding 2% has been observed in inland waterway infrastructure and an increase of more than 50% in airport infrastructure. For road infrastructure, this expenditure decreased by more than 8% while the maintenance and repair expenditures for railway transport by more than 7%.

Road infrastructure

Development of the motorway network continued in 2017 by upgrading of the D1 Motorway Prague – Brno – Vyškov - Hulín - Přerov - Lipník nad Bečvou - Bělotín - Ostrava – state border CZ/Poland. The following constructions were put into operation: “Upgrading of D1 – Section 06, EXIT 49 Psáře - EXIT 56 Soutice”, “Upgrading of D1 – Section 18, EXIT 134 Měřín – EXIT 141 V. Meziříčí západ” and Upgrading of D1 – Section 22, EXIT 162 Velká Bíteš - EXIT 168 Devět Křížů”. The following constructions continued on the D1 motorway in 2017: “Upgrading of D1 – Section 15, EXIT 112 Jihlava - EXIT 119 Velký Beranov” with planned completion in 2018 and “D1 0137 Přerov – Lipník” with planned completion in 2019. The following constructions started on the D1 motorway in 2017: “Upgrading of D1 – Section 04, EXIT 34 Ostředek - EXIT 41 Šternov”, “Upgrading of D1 - Section 10, EXIT 75 Hořice - EXIT 81 Koberovice” and “Upgrading of D1 – Section 20, EXIT 146 V. Meziříčí východ - EXIT 153 Lhotka”, all with planned completion in 2018.

Construction of other motorways also continued in 2017. As for the D3 Motorway Prague – Tábor – České Budějovice – state border CZ/Austria, the following constructions were completed in 2017 - “D3 0308C Veselí nad Lužnicí – Bošilec” and “D3 0309/III Borek – Úsilné”, and the implementation continued in the section – “D3 0309/I Bošilec – Ševětín” with planned completion in 2019. The construction of “D3 0309/II Ševětín – Borek” was launched on this motorway in 2017, with planned completion in 2020. On the D4 Motorway Prague – Příbram – Nová Hospoda (I/20), the construction section “D4 Skalka – crossroad with II/118” was completed. On the D6 Motorway Prague – Karlovy Vary – Cheb – state border CR/Germany, the constructions “D6 Nové Strašecí – Řevničov” and “D6 Řevničov bypass” were launched at the end of 2017, both with planned completion in 2020. On the D7 Motorway Prague – Slaný – Chomutov, the construction “D7 Postoloprty – GSJ Bítozeves” continued during 2017, with planned completion in 2018. On the D11 Motorway Prague - Hradec Králové - Trutnov – state border CZ/Poland, the construction “D11 1105-2 Osičky - Hradec Králové” was completed in 2017; the construction “D46 GSJ Žešov” was completed on the D46 Motorway Vyškov – Olomouc in 2017 and the construction “D48 Rybí - GSJ Rychaltice” was launched on the D48 Motorway Bělotín - Frýdek-Místek - Český Těšín in the same year, with planned completion in 2020.

Construction of class I roads continued also in 2017. Constructions that were put into operation in 2017 are for example “I/11 Oldřichovice – Bystřice”, “I/11 Nebory – Oldřichovice”, “I/35 Valašské Meziříčí - Lešná, Stage 3.”, “I/34 Božejov - Ondřejov – Pelhřimov”, “I/9 Dubá, bypass”, “I/37 Pardubice - Trojice”, “I/44 Červenohorské sedlo - jih”, “I/35 Zubří, crossroad with III/01877”, “I/3 Mirošovice - Benešov, 2+1 layout” or “I/35 Valašské Meziříčí, circular crossroad with roads I/57 and II/150”.

More important constructions of class II and class III road implemented in 2017 include for example “Road II/490: Polichno - Uherský Brod, Újezdec” and “Road II/487: Huslenky, through section” in the region of Zlín, “II/379 Velká Bíteš - crossroad with III/3792” and “II/150 Okrouhlice - bridge Ref. No. 150-022” in the region of Vysočina or “Complex works on rocks on road II/102 in the section Strnady – Štěchovice” and “II/111 Před Bystřicí, bridge Ref. No. 111-001” in the region of Central Bohemia. More important transport investments in the area of road infrastructure in 2017 also include the projects “Optimising the clearance in underpasses of the railway line in Česká Třebová” in the region of Pardubice, “II/232 Břasy - Liblín, completion” in the region of Pilsen, “Road II/273, section from border of region to – Okna” in the region of Liberec, “III/4203 Šakvice bridges 4203-3,4 over the railway corridor” in the region of South Moravia or “Reconstruction of GSJ Bazaly – Stage I.” in the region of Moravia-Silesia.

Railway infrastructure

Works on upgrading of transit railway corridors continued also in 2017. On the third transit railway corridor CZ/SK state border – Dětmarovice – Přerov – Česká Třebová – Prague – Plzeň – Cheb – CZ/DE state border, the constructions “Upgrading of the line Rokycany – Plzeň” with planned completion in 2018 and “Optimisation of the line Beroun (incl.) – Králův Dvůr” with planned completion in 2019 continued on the section Prague – Pilsen. The construction “Optimisation of the line Český Těšín – Dětmarovice” was launched in the section CZ/SK state border- Dětmarovice, with planned completion in 2019.

In 2017, it was mainly the preparation of construction projects with planned beginning in 2018 that was carried out on the fourth transit railway corridor CZ/Austria state border – České Budějovice – Tábor – Prague – Ústí nad Labem – Děčín - CZ/DE state border. These include constructions “Upgrading of the line Sudoměřice – Votice”, with planned completion in 2021 in the section Tábor – Prague and “Upgrading of the line Nemanice I - Ševětín, Construction 1, adjustments for ETCS, Part 2” with planned completion in 2020 in the section České Budějovice - Tábor.

As a follow-up to the upgrading of railway transit corridors, the upgrading of important railway junctions was also in progress, the purpose of which is to guarantee the same technological parameters as on connecting corridor lines. In railway junction Pilsen, the construction project “Junction Pilsen, Construction 1 – reconstruction of the Prague gridiron” was completed in 2017 and the construction project “Junction Pilsen, Construction 2 – reconstruction of the passenger station incl. bridges Mikulášská” continued its implementation with planned completion in 2019. In the Prague Junction, it was in particular the preparation of the construction “Optimisation of the line section Praha Hostivař – Praha main station, Part II – Praha Hostivař – Praha hl.n.” that was carried out in 2017, with planned beginning in 2018 and planned completion in 2021. This construction will result in the first-ever four-track line within the RIA network and it is a follow up of the construction “Optimisation of the line section Praha Hostivař – Praha main station, Part I – RST Praha Hostivař” completed in 2016.

Projects aimed at ensuring interoperability of selected lines through signalling and interlocking technology implementation represent another example of substantial investments. Deployment of the digital radio system GSM-R was carried out in 2017 in particular on the construction “GSM-R Ústí nad Orlicí – Lichkov”, with planned completion in 2018. Deployment of the European train control system ETCS was also carried out in 2017: implementation of the project “ETCS – Corridor I, Section Kolín – Břeclav – state border Austria/SK with planned completion in 2018 continued and the project “ETCS Petrovice u Karviné - Ostrava - Přerov – Břeclav” with planned completion in 2020 was launched.

Investments in railway infrastructure for the development of suburban transport and integrated transport systems were also carried out in 2017. In particular, the construction “Reconstruction of the Negrelli Viaduct” with planned completion in 2020 was launched in the Prague Junction as part of the “Upgrading of the line Prague – Kladno, with connection of the Václav Havel Airport”.

Inland waterway transport infrastructure

Drawing of financial resources in 2017 was mostly directed to the investment project of completing the Vltava waterway in the section Hněvkovice – Týn nad Vltavou, bringing an end to the ten years of construction works on the new 33 km long waterway between České Budějovice and Týn nad Vltavou. The upgrading of roadstead of the lock chamber Kořensko on the Vltava waterway launched in 2016 was completed in the first half of 2017. Works on mooring berths on Nábřeží Edvarda Beneše were carried out in 2017.

Substantial financial resources were also spent on intense preparation of other investment projects aimed at complex development of the whole network of waterways with importance for transport.

Air transport infrastructure

The most important drawing of investment costs at the Prague Airport in 2017 was spent on reconstruction of TWY J between taxiways TWY H and TWY G, on the retail zone in the Arrivals Hall of Terminal 1, on increasing the capacity of passenger controls, devices for controls of liquids, reconstruction of the apron area in the SOUTH part, taxiways for fast turning RETWY J and for crossing of the take-off and landing runway RWY 12/30 with TWY F. A major part of repair and maintenance expenditure on the same airport was spent on repairs of buildings and equipment and repairs of taxiways TWY L, TWY G, TWY Z and TWY F.

Important investments in other airports in 2017 include for example building of the new Jan Kašpar Terminal at the Pardubice Airport and also the addition to the firefighters´ building at the Brno Airport, acquisition of an explosives detector, transferring of PAPI RWY 11 and building of a new firefighter station at the Karlovy Vary Airport.

ROAD TRANSPORT FLEET

Based on information from the Central Vehicle Register, the number of motor vehicles registered in the Czech Republic in 2017 increased by 3.9%. The total number of registered vehicles including trailers of all types and categories increased by approximately the same percentage and reached almost 7.9 million.

The number of registered passenger cars again shows a year-on-year increase in 2017. In absolute numbers, this represents an increase of approximately 230,000 vehicles, which is 4.3%. When compared with the previous year, the growth rate was slightly higher. As at 1 January 2018, this figure was 5,538,222, i.e. almost 75% of the total number of motor vehicles registered in the Central Vehicle Register. As for the age of passenger vehicles, 60% are older than 10 years and approximately 80% are older than 5 years. This ratio does not show much change year-on-year.

The number of registered road freight vehicles also saw a year-on-year increase by more than 3%. The year-on-year growth rate remains approximately the same also in this category. The number of vehicles not older than 2 years increased again by almost 10% and at the same time an increase of more than 15% has been observed for vehicles older than 10 years. The number of vehicles in this category has increased by 75% since 2010. The percentage share of freight vehicles older than 10 years of almost 52% is however substantially lower than in the category of passenger vehicles. However, this share continues to grow, with a 6% increase year-on-year.

In 2017, a minor increase was observed also in the number of registered mini buses and buses by approximately 3% and of less than 3% in trailers. The number of semi-trailers was more or less stagnating again. The number of road tractors has been decreasing over the long term and based on information from the Central Vehicles Register, the numbers went down to less than 20% over the past ten years. The year-on-year reduction in this category for 2017 amounted to 8%. In the same year, the category of special automobiles saw a very minor decrease of almost 2% and the motorcycles saw an increase of almost 5%.

TRANSPORT

The total passenger transport performance has been growing for the fifth year again in 2017. The year-on-year increase of 12.4% is substantially higher than in the previous year. The number of passengers carried also increased by 6.3%. The development of this indicator did not show significant fluctuations until 2014; a significant increase has been achieved in the 3 previous years.

In the public transport of persons, a slight increase of almost 2% occurred in the number of persons carried and of 6.7% in transport performance.

In railway transport, the growth trend continued also in 2017 and there has been again an increase in the growth rate as compared to the previous year, in particular in transport performance. Transport performance saw a year-on-year increase of more than 7% while the number of passengers carried was rather stagnating as the increase was very minor of approximately 2%. Transport performance values in passenger railway transport have been growing for the eighth year in a row and are the highest since 2000.

A very slow decline not exceeding 1% has been observed in the development trend of the number of passengers transported by bus transport. Transport performance on the contrary showed a significant year-on-year increase of more than 9% and is the highest in the past 20 years.

The transport performance and number of passengers transported by urban public transport saw an increase also in 2017 – approximately 2.5% in performance and 1.9% in transport volumes. The year-on-year increase was lower than in the previous year, when it was rather high partially due to a change in methodology.

After a slight increase in individual car transport in 2011, a drop was observed also for this indicator in 2012. In 2013, this trend was reversed and both the performance and number of passengers in individual car transport increased. This increase continued also in years 2014-2017.

As regards inland waterway transport, where particularly passenger transport of recreational character was involved, a year-on-year increase of less than 3% in transport performance and less than 2% in the number of persons carried was observed in 2017. Air transport continued to grow. In 2017, the number of transported passengers and transport performance increased both by more than 11%. In 2017, the number of passengers travelling using Czech airports increased again by more than 18% and reached its highest level.

In freight transport, after the decrease in 2016, year 2017 saw again an increase in the volume of goods carried by less than 6%, however the decreasing trend continued in transport performance reaching almost 8%, mainly due to the continuing reduction in road freight transport. The volume of transported goods thus remains the highest in the past 15 years; transport performance is similar to the 2009 level and is the lowest in the past 7 years.

The growing development trend of the last three years in the volumes of goods carried by railway changed its course in 2017 and a slight decrease not exceeding 2% was reported for this indicator. The growth in railway freight transport performance continues for the fourth year in a row.

After almost 10 years of decline until 2012, subsequent growth of 3 years until 2015 and a slight decrease again in 2016, the volume of goods carried by road freight transport saw a year-on-year increase of more than 6% in 2017, being the highest in the past 12 years. Transport performance saw a significant decrease of 12%. A substantial reduction in transport performance is observed in particular in international road freight transport.

In 2015, after a stagnation of three years, the volume of goods carried by air cargo saw a decrease by approximately one third and also air transport performance decreased by 11%. In 2016 and 2017, air cargo remains at the same level as in 2015. The performance of airports in 2017 substantially increased again, namely by almost 15%. The volume of goods transported by inland waterway transport decreased in 2017 approximately by 12% while transport performance remained roughly at the same level as in 2016.

ACCIDENTS

In 2017, the Police of the Czech Republic investigated altogether 103,821 road traffic accidents which represents a year-on-year increase of 5%. Even though the growth rate slightly slowed down year-on-year, the number of accidents keeps increasing since 2009, with the exception of 2011. Year 2009 was significant as there was a change in the legislation (in effect from 1/1/2009), increasing the “threshold” for obligatory notification of the accident from original 50,000 CZK to 100,000 CZK. This was probably one of the reasons why the Police of the Czech Republic investigated the lowest number of accidents in that year. The highest number of accidents was investigated in 1999 – 225,690 accidents.

However, despite the fact that the number investigated accidents keeps increasing for several years in a row, the number of persons killed in road accidents in 2017 is the lowest since 1961 since when police statistics on traffic accidents are available. In 2017, the total number of persons killed was 502 (death within 24 hours after the accident; EC statistics and other international statistics use number of people dead within 30 days since the date of an accident – this number reached 577 in the same year) which is a year-on-year reduction of 7.9%. On the contrary, the highest number of persons killed in traffic accidents was registered in 1969 – 1,758 persons.

The number of seriously injured persons decreased by 9.3% year-on-year and was the lowest since 1961. The highest number of persons injured in traffic accidents was recorded again in 1969. The number of slightly injured persons also moderately increased, but only by 1%. The estimated material damage amounted to CZK 6.3 billion which is an increase of almost 9% compared to the previous year. The average material damage in one road traffic accident investigated by the police amounts to approximately 61.000 CZK.

As in preceding years the motor vehicle drivers were those who caused most of the accidents, thus approximately 83% of accidents during which more than 92% of the total number of persons killed died. When compared to the previous year, the number of persons killed in these accidents is lower by 35. In accidents caused by drivers of motorless vehicles, 26 persons were killed and 13 persons died in accidents caused by pedestrians. The number of accidents caused by drivers of passenger cars also slightly increased, namely by less than 2%, in freight vehicles without semi-trailer by 7.8%, in buses by 15.7% and in motorcycles by 4.7%. The number of accidents caused by cyclists decreased by 3.3%.

In 2017, the number of registered accidents caused under the influence of alcohol amounted to 4,251, i.e. more than 4% of the total number of accidents; 48 persons died during those accidents, i.e. 9.6% of the total number of persons killed. When compared to the previous year, the number of accidents is lower by 134 and the number of persons killed also decreased by 4 persons. In 2017, over 231 accidents were caused by drivers under influence of other addictive substances; 4 persons died in these accidents. There was a reduction of both the number of accidents and the number of persons killed in this area.

As for the distribution of accidents in time, the highest number was recorded in October as in the previous year. June was the most tragic month with 62 persons killed; the lowest number of accidents in 2017 was investigated by the police in February, as in 2016. February was also the month with lowest number of persons killed in accidents. When looking at days of a week, again Friday had the highest number of accidents while Sunday had the lowest number. With regard to numbers of persons killed, the worst days were Friday and Saturday. In 2017, the highest number of traffic accidents was again recorded in Prague whereas the lowest in the region of Karlovy Vary, similarly as in 2016 and previous years. As in the previous years, the region of Central Bohemia had the highest number of persons killed, almost 4 times more than on the territory of the Capital City of Prague.

Out of the total number of persons killed in road accidents during 2017, 174 drivers of passenger cars, 101 pedestrians, 60 drivers of motorcycles and 44 cyclists were killed. The biggest year-on-year reduction is in the category of drivers of passenger cars, by 35 persons and in the category of pedestrians, by 10 persons.

In the same year, again more than 17,000 incidents were recorded where a driver causing the accident drove away from the place of the accident, which is almost 20% of the total number of accidents caused by drivers of motor vehicles. The number of these accidents continues to rise, namely by 8.9% compared to 2016. The number of persons killed in these cases decreased by 3 in 2017.

Every day the Police of the Czech Republic investigated on average 284 road traffic accidents, with 1.4 person killed and 74 persons injured. The estimated material damage represents on average more than 17 million CZK per day.