Transport Yearbook 2021

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Transport Sector Development in 2021

INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure expenditures

In 2021, the overall volume of investments into transport infrastructure increased again and was almost CZK 85 billion. The increase was by 6 % which represents a year-on-year increase of almost CZK 5 billion. The volume of investment expenditure in transport infrastructure in 2021 was the highest in the past 13 years. In 2021, the highest volume of funds was spent on infrastructure from the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure (SFTI) budget; the growth trend of several previous years continues. 2021 was an important year also with regard to the implementation of the PPP (public private partnership) pilot project of the D4 motorway. In cooperation with the Ministry of Transport, the SFTI managed to agree on the so-called financial closure for funding of the D4 motorway construction between Příbram and Písek; this was the completion of the preparatory phase before the building works will start on 32 km of a new motorway and on 16 km of renovation of current sections with 2 lanes in each direction.

There was again an increase in the volume of investment resources spent on roads in 2021 amounting to 7%. Investment expenditure for this type of infrastructure was the highest in the past 11 years. Investment expenditure in Class II and Class III roads, namely roads in the ownership of regions, increased in 2021 and amounted to CZK 21 billion (including repairs and maintenance). The percentage share of total investment costs into Class II and III roads of the total investment expenditure into roads of 22% was lower year-on-year – in 2019 it was 35 %, in 2018 even 46% and 31% in 2020.

A very important increase of more than 25% year-on-year was also observed in investments into railway infrastructure in 2021. This year saw the highest increase of investments spent on railway historically. Investment costs spent on railway infrastructure were going down from 2009 until 2014, followed by a significant increase that occurred in 2015.

As for other investment expenditure in 2021, a reduction was recorded pipeline transport.

Total expenditure for repairs and maintenance of transport infrastructure in 2021 saw a year-on-year increase of 7%. After several years of stagnation until 2013, a subsequent growth for three years until 2016 and a reduction in 2017, the total transport infrastructure repair and maintenance expenditure increased again rather significantly in 2018 and 2020. There were no substantial changes in the 8 years until 2013 and thus this type of expenditure did not follow the steep declining trend in general investment expenditure during the crisis period. The measures aimed at savings did not affect this area too much.

 

Road infrastructure

In 2021, the construction D0 Bridge over Chlumecká Street started on the D0 Prague Ring Road Motorway. On the D3 Motorway Prague – Tábor – České Budějovice – state border CZ/Austria, the following constructions continued in 2021: „D3 0310/I Úsilné – Hodějovice” with planned start of operation in 2024 and „D3 0310/II Hodějovice – Třebonín” with planned start of operation in 2023. On the D4 motorway, works on section Háje – Mirotice started in the form of a PPP. On the D6 Motorway Prague – Karlovy Vary – Cheb – state border CR/Germany, the construction of „D6 Lubenec bypass” was put into operation in 2021. On the D7 Motorway Prague – Slaný – Chomutov, the construction „D7 Louny – increasing the bypass capacity” continued, with planned start of operation in 2023, and the construction „D7 Panenský Týnec – increasing the bypass capacity” was put into operation in 2021. On the D11 Motorway Prague - Hradec Králové - Trutnov – state border CZ/Poland, the constructions „D11 1106 Hradec Králové – Smiřice” and „D11 1107 Smiřice – Jaroměř” were put into operation in 2021. On the D35 Motorway Úlibice - Hradec Králové - Olomouc - Lipník nad Bečvou, the construction „D35 Opatovice nad Labem – Časy” was put into operation in 2021; works on „D35 Časy – Ostrov” continued, with planned start of operation in 2022. On the D46 Motorway Vyškov - Prostějov – Olomouc, the construction of „D46 GSJ Prostějov střed” continues, with planned start of operation in 2022, and works started on the construction „D46 GSJ Drysice”. On the D48 Motorway Bělotín - Frýdek-Místek - Český Těšín, the constructions „D48 Frýdek-Místek bypass, Stage 1” and „D48 Frýdek-Místek bypass, Stage 2” continued, both with planned start of operation in 2022. Works started on construction „D48 GSJ Bělotín – Rybí, Stage I” with planned start of operation in 2023.  On the D49 motorway, the construction „D49 4901 Hulín-Fryšták” was re-started, with planned start of operation in 2024. On the D55 motorway Olomouc - Přerov - Otrokovice – Břeclav, the construction of „D55 5505 Otrokovice south-east bypass” was put into operation in 2021, the construction „D55 5507 Babice - Staré Město” continued, with planned start of operation in 2023, and the works started on „D55 5508 Staré Město – Moravský Písek”, with planned start of operation in 2024.

Construction of Class I Roads also continued in 2021. Constructions that were put into operation include for example „I/57 Krnov – N-E bypass“, „I/46 Opava, southern bypass – connection to I/11”, „I/55 GSJ with ČD Přerov – Předmostí”, „I/37 Osová Bítýška – bypass”, „I/37 Chrudim – bypass, section crossroad I/17–Slatiňany”, „I/37 Pardubice - GSJ Palackého, completion”, „I/43 Milonice, exit lane”, „I/38 Pávov, noise-protection wall”, „I/35 Ktová – removing the level crossing”, „I/35 GSJ Rádelský mlýn”, „I/9 Zahrádky, crossroad with I/15”, „I/15 ring road junction u Kapličky”, „Ring road junction Bílina I/13 and II/257”, „I/3 Benešov, ring road junction Červené Vršky”, „I/20 and II/231 Plzeň – Plaská – Na Roudné – Chrástecká, Stage 2”, „I/27 Plzeň, Třemošenský rybník – Orlík”. In 2021, works started on the following constructions: „I/27 Klatovy, relocation, Construction 1”, „I/3 Olbramovice, relocation”, „I/9, I/16 Mělník, bypass, Construction 2”, „I/34 Stráž nad Nežárkou – Lásenice”, „I/11 Doudleby nad Orlicí – bypass”, „I/44 Bludov – bypass”, „I/42 Brno, VMO - Tomkovo náměstí”, „I/55 Kunovice, though road – traffic safety measures”, „I/54, I/55 Veselí nad Moravou, crossroad”.

 

Railway infrastructure

In 2021, Správa železnic completed the upgrading of 92 km of railway tracks; works on tracks and stations also continued or were started. It also carried out some steps in preparation for the first sections of HSR or reconstructions and repairs of station buildings with emphasis on barrier-free access. Správa železnic had a record budget of CZK 60 billion, out of which 37 billion for investments. Správa železnic was also successful in drawing financial resources from EU funds thanks to well-prepared projects; EU share of the investments exceeded CZK 20 billion. Správa železnic managed to absorb 99.9 % of the European subsidies available for upgrading of railway infrastructure in the Czech Republic. Správa železnic also launched 3 key projects from the Blending Call programme on sections Ústí nad Orlicí – Brandýs nad Orlicí, Brno - Maloměřice – Adamov, and Adamov – Blansko. Projects aimed at reconstruction of Vsetín Railway Station, upgrading and double-tracking of the line between Pardubice – Rosice nad Labem and Stéblová are being implemented. Construction works on the Pardubice Junction and on the corridor line between Velim and Poříčany are continuing for the second year now; significant progress has been reached on Corridor IV projects - Votice – Sudoměřice and Soběslav – Doubí u Tábora.

There is a new station on the Czech railway network since September 2021 – station Praha-Zahradní Město has been built by Správa železnic on the relocated line in the context of upgrading the section Praha-Hostivař – Praha Main Station, including a four-track line with higher capacity. In December 2021, the reconstruction of the line between Lysá nad Labem and Čelákovice was just before completion; replacing the bridge over the Elbe River in Čelákovice was a key part of this project. 

Správa železnic completed the upgrading of a part of Corridor III from Beroun to Králův Dvůr, incl. full reconstruction of the Beroun station and the reconstruction of the line section Valašské Meziříčí – Hustopeče nad Bečvou. The newly electrified line from Olomouc to Uničov was put into operation. Two sections from the project Praha – Kladno with a branch to Prague airport have progressed in preparation.

As at the end of 2021, the total length of railway lines is 9,358 km, of which 3,215 km of electrified lines. Tracks construction length total 15,091 km; number of points 21,445; number of bridges 6,719 with total length of 154,845 m; number of tunnels 166 with total length of 54,072 m; number of railway crossings 7,734. Costs of operability in 2021 amounted to CZK 19.273 billion (excluding write-offs). The number of carriers that have concluded an Agreement on operation of rail transport on national and regional lines owned by the state with Správa železnic increased to 126 in 2021. Despite all the measures related to the declared state of emergency due to spreading of the Covid-19 disease, Správa železnic managed to invest the highest annual volume of funds since its establishment. Compared to 2020, the volume of resources spent was higher by CZK 7.5 billion.

 

Inland waterway transport infrastructure

Financial resources of the SFTI in the amount of approx. CZK 697.09 million (of which investment expenditure approx. CZK 663.07 million and non-investment expenditure approx. CZK 34.02 million) were spent on developing the waterway transport infrastructure, upgrading and maintenance of waterways important for transport by the Waterways Directorate of the Czech Republic, a sub-ordinate organisation of the Ministry of Transport. Co-financing from the Connecting Europe Facility (hereinafter the CEF) amounted to approx. CZK 13.738 million for the RIS COMEX project.

Drawing of the above specified financial resources from the SFTI in 2021 was again primarily related to implementation of investment projects aimed at improving the parameters of the Vltava waterway between Prague and Mělník – these are projects „Increasing the clearance on the Vltava Waterway” in the amount of CZK 370 million, and „Increasing navigation depth on the Vltava Waterway” in the amount of approx. CZK 74.685 million underway and a completed project „Modification of the Hořín lock chamber gates” in the amount of approx. CZK 47.280 million. Thanks to these projects, the complex raising of clearances in the navigation channel Vraňany – Hořín to 7.0 m was completed in September 2021 using among other 4 unique remote-controlled drawbridges. The successful implementation of other investment actions aimed at development of leisure navigation continued through projects „Mooring site for passenger waterway transport in the area of Lower Elbe” in the amount of approx. CZK 15.346 million, „Leisure navigation port Kolín” in the amount of approx. CZK 5.987 million and in particular the completion of the upgrading and expanding of „Leisure navigation port Veselí nad Moravou” on the Bata Channel in the amount of approx. CZK 35.306 million. For the Investment Actions with Budget under CZK 30 million global budgetary item, the drawing in 2021 in the form of smaller projects amounted to approx. CZK 47.487 million. In the context of safety of waterway use, the putting into operation of two new fixed refuelling stations for vessels, including waste water collection, in Veselí nad Moravou and Hluboká nad Vltavou, was very important. These are the first protected fuelling stations on the Bata Channel and on Vltava in the region of South Bohemia. Significant volumes of financial resources – approx. CZK 43.489 million – were spent on intensive preparation of other investment actions aimed at complex development of the entire networks of waterways important for transport.

 

Air transport infrastructure

The highest investments into development and upgrading of airport infrastructure were aimed at the biggest airport in the Czech Republic, the Václav Havel Airport in Prague, similarly as in the preceding years. Investment expenditure was spent at this airport in 2021 mainly on shifting and expanding the „Romeo” taxiway (TWY R), building of the second part of dispatch area SOUTH and finalising the expansion of the water treatment plant and contaminated waters treatment plant. Other investments were aimed at finalising the reconstruction of the baggage sorting site, replacement of back-up electricity sources for the main runway (RWY 06/24), acquisition of new devices to protect the airport against criminal acts and on IT infrastructure development.

 Regarding other airports, important investments in 2021 include for example launching of the second phase of fencing of the north-west segment of the Karlovy Vary airport area, finalising of the EIA documentation for the intended project to make the main take-off and landing runway wider and longer and to complete the installation of grass concrete pavers in light mounted hangars, also at the Karlovy Vary airport. At the Ostrava Mošnov airport, investment resources were spent on technical equipment aimed at protecting civil aviation against criminal acts (X-ray workstations, trace elements detection devices, X-ray devices to check persons and cargo), also electrical baggage tractors and a tractor for the maintenance centre were acquired.

 

Combined transport

Specialised infrastructure for combined transport means in particular transloading sites for combined transport. In the Czech Republic, these are fully owned by private entities, such as combined transport operators, carriers or operators of the transloading sites. The state supports development of dedicated infrastructure in particular via programmes under the Operational Programme Transport. The programme aimed at supporting combined transport transloading sites focused on building of completely new sites in areas where these would not be competing with already existing sites or where they will suitably complement the existing infrastructure, or on increasing capacity and development of already existing transloading sites. Support for individual projects is capped at 49% of project eligible costs, with at least 51% of the resources covered by the private beneficiary from their sources. During the last programming period, 13 project applications were approved; the total approved support of CZK 823.6 million was aimed at building or upgrading of 7 combined transloading sites and their equipment with new freight manipulation technology. This includes three new transloading sites that were put into operation in northern, central and eastern Bohemia; the remaining were projects aimed at increasing the transloading capacity of existing sites, mostly in northern Moravia, central Bohemia and northern Bohemia. In 2021, 7 of the projects approved for co-financing were still being implemented – two new sites will be created, the remaining 5 projects are aimed at improving the quality, environmental friendliness and increasing capacity of existing sites. The new sites should start operation during 2022. The Programme aimed at building and upgrading of combined transport transloading sites will also continue as part of Operation Programme Transport No 3.

In the recent period, only non-accompanied combined transport road-rail was being operated in Czech Republic; its scope is gradually growing. Until 2018, the trend was growing practically every year while after 2018 we are observing either stagnation or slight reduction. In 2021, it was in particular large containers that were used for combined transport, their share was 93.4%. Road transport by semi-trailers was 6.4% while transport of exchangeable superstructures was negligeable (0.2%). Combined transport on the Elbe waterway is not being operated.

The importance of combined transport can be demonstrated by its growing share in freight transport in general, but in particular in railway freight transport. In 2021, its share in total transported freight (expressed in transported tonnes) reached 2.59 %, in railway freight 15.9 %; the figures are significantly higher for international transport with 11.7 % and 20.6 % respectively. The trend for transport performance is similar.

 

TRANSPORT

In 2021, the Covid-19 pandemics and related state of emergency on the Czech territory continued, therefore the reduction of mobility of persons persisted, leading to a reduction of transport volumes and transport performance in public passenger transport. However, the total transport performance in passenger transport increased by approx. 23% when compared with 2020 and the transported volume by 13%, nevertheless it was still at substantially reduced levels when compared with the years 2015-2019.

 In railway transport, the year-on-year increase for 2021 was almost 4% in the number of transported persons and approx. 2% in passenger-km; again, the values are below the pre-pandemics results.

In bus transport, there was a slight increase of approx. 8 % in the number of transported persons and a decrease of approx. 1% in transport performance expressed in passenger-km in 2021. The overall decrease in the number of transported persons was also visible in the urban public transport category where the year-on-year decrease reached another 6%. A change of methodology for urban public transport took place in 2018 due to availability of more precise input data from new technologies and the timeline since 2014 has been recalculated. It is interesting to note that at present (2022), there is a lack of bus drivers both in public urban and long-distance transport, some cities are therefore reducing the scope of public transport which can also be reflected in the decreasing figures.

Air transport in 2021 remains substantially affected by the Covid-19 pandemics. After a historically unseen drop in 2020, Czech air transport carriers saw a year-on-year increase in the number of passenger-km. As for the performance of airports, even though a significant increase was observed in 2021 compared to 2020, the performance parameters in all categories in general (except for air cargo transport) remained significantly below the 2019 values.

In individual car transport, there was also an increase again in 2021 when compared with 2020 due to less strict restrictions in the area of mobility of inhabitants.

As regards inland waterway transport, where particularly passenger transport of recreational character was involved, the number of persons carried in 2021 remained the same as in 2020.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemics, the congruent development trend of transport performance growth from the period 2010-2019 was significantly disrupted in the years 2020 and 2021 by health and safety related adopted measures. Mobility of inhabitants was legitimately restricted on purpose to prevent disease spreading. This affected work-related travel (orders to works from home, work meetings held online, remote learning in schools) and leisure-time activities (restrictions for cultural events, sports, tourism).

As the pandemics was suppressed by vaccination, life and travelling are getting back to normal. Nevertheless, it is a new normal, as the pandemics accelerated the trends of remote working and remote meetings enabled by the intense development that has been going on already for some time of digital information technologies. We will have to wait several years for an objective assessment of the impact of these changes on mobility of persons and goods, but some tendencies are rather obvious and logical and can be observed already at present:

- A certain reduction of daily commuting occurred (work regime 2/5 or 3/5);

- Bigger variations with regards to beginning and end of work time in a wider time span – some persons no longer spend the full 8 hours of work time in their workplace, but only a part of it (because of meetings in person) and the majority of work is done from home or from secondary residences in the summer time;

- The labour market saw the addition of new competent workers living up to hundreds of km away from the workplace. Daily commuting would be impossible, but coming to work once or twice per week, in combination with home office and train office makes it possible to accept such jobs. The distance travelled therefore increases.

- Traditionally, family members are apart during working hours, they want to spend time together. Therefore, the non-working hours are spent together, at home. Working from home means family members are together during working hours within a limited space in their households (as it was traditionally the case in the past in agriculture and crafts). In consequence, people are naturally trying to leave their households outside of working hours (afternoons, weekends) and to move around in the outdoor space.

- The decreasing trend of work-related travelling (work meetings replaced by electronic communication) and increase of leisure travelling (in relation to the growth of living standards) that was visible also in previous years (Q.3. used to be the weakest period of travelling and gradually became the strongest one) became more prominent because of the changes in work regimes. It is obvious that travelling motived by rational reasons is going down as it is being replaced by cheaper electronic communication, while emotionally motivated (looking for experiences) travelling grows as a natural trend related to increasing wealth;

- We expect that the geopolitical and geo-energetic development in 2022 and related interest in meticulous energy savings, in particular of fossil fuels, will further affect the above-mentioned trends.

 

These facts are important not only to understand the current socio-geographic development, but also for grasping of other development trends in urbanisation of territory and future transport relations. These are key for the development of transport infrastructure and transport means.

Freight transport in 2021 was not significantly affected by the current Covid-19 pandemics; there was a year-on-year increase in the volume of goods carried by almost 10% and transport performance expressed in tonne-km grew by approx. 12%. Transport volume reached after the mentioned decrease did not exceed the 2019 value which was the highest in 20 years. Transport performance in 2021 reached the historical maximum.

During the Covid period (2020, 2021), an interesting paradox occurred on the labour market: there was a sufficient number of candidates looking for long-distance truck driving jobs, also because of the reduced schedules in public urban transport. This was reflected in the statistics by increased transport performance of road freight, increase of the mean transported distance and reduction of specific emissions. In reality, no reduction of emissions occurred, but foreign carriers on Czech roads were replaced by Czech carriers.

Data on railway freight transport for 2021 show an increase in transported tonnes by approx. 10%, getting back to the pre-covid levels, and in transport performance by approx. 7% year-on-year. 

In 2021, there was a substantial increase in transport performance in road freight transport by almost 9% while the volume of transported goods in tonnes increased by approx. 14% year-on-year. The increase was caused in particular by a rather sharp growth in international freight transport and thus increasing transport distance. Also, the volume of goods transported by road freight is historically the highest in 20 years.

Year-on-year reductions after 2015 were caused by new EU regulations on foreign truck drivers in relation to the salaries and other rules related to break and rest time. Czech carriers thus had to pay minimal wages of the countries where the freight was being transported to Czech drivers, thus losing the competitive advantage of lower labour costs. These regulations were eased in 2020 which probably led to increase in performance and results exceeding the 2015 values.

The volume of goods carried by air cargo in 2021 by Czech carriers dropped to practically zero. Air cargo is currently operated mostly by foreign carriers. The performance of Czech airport started to grow again by 30% year-on-year; the values are above the ones for 2017 and 2018, but did not exceed the 2019 ones. Intranational air transport saw a substantial growth during the period 2017-2021.

In inland waterway transport in 2021, the volume of tonnes transported decreased year-on-year by approx. 6,4 % and transport performance slightly grew by approx. 1,5 %. Waterway freight transport performance is substantially affected by waterway navigability and availability of vessels.

 

ACCIDENTS

In 2021, the Police of the Czech Republic investigated altogether 99,332 road traffic accidents. The total number of persons killed in these accidents in 2021 was 470 (death within 24 hours after the accident; EC statistics and other international statistics use number of persons dead within 30 days since the date of an accident – this number reached 518 in 2020), which is an increase of 2.2% year-on-year. There were 1,624 seriously injured persons which is a 10% decrease year-on-year and 20,581 slightly injured persons which is a decrease of 1.4% year-on-year.

The average material damage in one road traffic accident investigated by the police amounts to approximately 68,000 CZK. Per day, the average amounts to almost 272 investigated accidents, with a material damage above CZK 18.4 million and average number of 1.29 persons killed. The accidents rate in 2020 was undoubtedly impacted by the fact that the state of emergency was declared by the Czech government in the context of the Covid-19 pandemics for the periods from October 2020 to April 2021 and from November to December 2021 and thus the mobility of persons was significantly restricted.

 As in preceding years, particularly the motor vehicle drivers were those who caused approximately 79.5 % of accidents during which 91.9 % of the total number of persons killed died. When compared to the previous year, the number of persons killed in these accidents is higher by 15. In accidents caused by drivers of motorless vehicles, 21 persons were killed and 12 persons died in accidents caused by pedestrians.

In 2021, the number of accidents caused under the influence of alcohol was lower by 34 and amounted to 4,486 accidents. 41 persons died during those accidents, i.e. 9 persons less than in 2020. In 84 accidents, the drivers were under influence of other addictive substances; 4 persons died in these accidents. 55 drivers had both alcohol and drugs in their system during accidents.

As in the previous years, the highest number of traffic accidents was again recorded in Prague. The biggest number of fatal accidents was recorded in Central Bohemia. The lowest number of accidents was reported in the region of Karlovy Vary. Despite the highest number of traffic accidents in Prague in the long-term, the number of persons killed - 22 - is substantially lower than in the region of Central Bohemia with 80 persons killed. As for the distribution of accidents in time, the highest number was recorded in August 2021. August was also the most tragic month with 55 persons killed in traffic accidents. The lowest number of accidents in 2021 was investigated by the police in March, April was 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 and also was the worst in the number of persons killed, while Sunday had the lowest number. In 2021, 161 drivers of passenger cars, 90 pedestrians, 78 drivers of motorcycles (increase by 21 persons in comparison with 2020) and 43 cyclists were killed in road accidents. In 2021, again some 17,683 incidents were recorded where the driver causing the accident drove away from the place of the accident, which is almost 18% of the total number of accidents caused by drivers of motor vehicles; 8 persons died during these accidents which is 3 more than in 2020.