What Happened to the National Road Carrier in a Post‐Communist Country? The Case of Poland's State Road Transport

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to seek to reconstruct the ownership transformation involving Poland's State Road Transport (PKS) companies passed through after 1990. Data collected from various sources (above all the Internet) were used to establish the degree of advancement of the transformation processes. Despite the passage of 18 years since the new economic reforms were launched, privatization processes are not well advanced. State ownership remains dominant, in the form of Treasury companies as well as state‐owned enterprises. Privatization processes have encompassed fewer than half of all firms, the most popular form taken (in about a quarter of all analysed cases) involving leasing by workers. This would seem of major interest, attesting as it does to the greater activity of some worker's teams, as well as the passive role of the state in privatization processes. A much smaller number of firms (26) have been purchased by external investors, the only important international concern among these being Veolia, which had taken control of 11 PKS companies as of mid‐2006. By and large, it is the firms carrying passengers or passenger and goods that are in a much better situation, as opposed to the companies that are commodity‐carriers only. The majority of the latter have collapsed, or have undergone the kind of privatization that involves simultaneous shutdown. Mixed passenger and goods carriers have had to reduce their level of activity in commodity transport.     

Organizational and Ownership Transformation in Poland’s Urban Transport Companies

Abstract

This paper seeks to reconstruct the organizational and ownership transformation involving Poland’s urban transport that companies passed through after 1990. Data collected from various sources (above all the Internet, including the Bulletins of Public Information) were used to establish the degree of advancement of the transformation processes. Despite the passage of nearly two decades since the new economic reforms were launched, the privatization processes involving enterprises of municipal origin are not well‐advanced. There is not a single private company among the organizers of urban transport. Instead, an absolute domination of budgetary‐sphere entities may be noted. Furthermore, there are seven transport municipal unions. Among the operators (carriers) public ownership remains dominant in the form of single‐person local authority companies, local government companies, municipal union ownerships, municipal companies as well as budgetary units. Privatization processes have encompassed fewer than 10% of all operators in the form of companies with foreign participation, workers’ companies and companies with Polish non‐public sector participation. Moreover, in 20 localities urban transport is supplied by multi‐trade municipal services enterprises (as of end‐2008). Thus, transformation processes, though started earlier than in the case of Poland’s State Road Transport coach companies, are much less advanced.     

Deregulation in Polish Rail Transport

Abstract

A phenomenon new to the Polish situation—the deregulation of rail transport—is presented. Despite its primarily legal nature, deregulation also implies various economic, socio‐political and spatial consequences. The relatively short period over which partial deregulation of public transport in Poland has been in effect (i.e. since 2000) ensures that the issue has not been taken up by Polish geographers as a research field. However, it has been of interest to Polish economists. Deregulation is a phenomenon of primary importance, with direct implications for the character, quality, type, intensity and spatial differentiation of transport (including freight and passenger traffic) within the market economy. This paper, therefore, presents the impact of the recent changes in the legal system (as regards deregulation) on the current pattern of railway connections of the major carriers. As the majority of these originate beyond the Polskie Koleje Państwowe (Polish State Railways) Group, they can be said to be independent of the main former state carrier.     

Overcoming Governance and Institutional Barriers to Integrated Coastal Zone,Marine Protected Area,and Tourism Management in Sri Lanka

One of the major barriers to addressing complex social–ecological issues through integrated coastal management (ICM) is a lack of intergovernmental coordination and cooperation (horizontal and vertical fragmentation). This article describes an effort to overcome the barriers to ICM in Sri Lanka by fostering intergovernmental collaboration and initiating adaptive governance to restore one town, Hikkaduwa, and its associated marine protected area (MPA) and coastal zone habitats. Administrators from 12 national and local governmental agencies that are responsible for aspects of coastal management in the town of Hikkaduwa participated in a series of formal and informal workshops and a week-long tour of ICM projects in the Philippines. Outcomes demonstrate that these informal and formal meetings, workshops, and travel experiences fostered trust, social capital, and attitudinal organizational commitment (AOC). The experiences motivated members to overcome vertical and horizontal governance fragmentation through the formation of an independent intergovernmental committee for the restoration of Hikkaduwa into a sustainable and resilient community. ICM activities undertaken by the newly formed organization suggest that internal leadership capacity, effective local–national partnerships, explicitly linked ecological–economic projects, and long-term commitment are necessary conditions for success. Overall, attainment of sustainability and resilience through successful ICM should be thought of as a journey and not a destination.     

Delphi forecast of the dry bulk shipping industry in the year 2000

Technological forecasting in general, and the Delphi method in particular, are new decision making tools which so far have not gained wide acceptance in shipping circles.

An attempt was made to use the Delphi method to obtain the views of industry leaders on a host of issues governing dry bulk shipping. A three-round Delphi exercise became the basis for a scenario of the industry in the year 2000.

In addition to dating future events, the exercise tested the respondents' attitudes towards investment and innovation in the field of 'bulking' new edible commodities. The scenario and other data were used as input to the process of selecting an optimal vessel for the carriage of the relevant commodities.     

Evaluation of political risk in a shipping project

Shipping projects, as land-based ones, are evaluated by using different measures of merit based on discounted cash flows. The bulk carrying industry, where costs are known better than revenues, adopted the required freight rate (RFR) and its derivative the economic cost of transport (ECT) as its major measures of merit. Shipping is a business exposed to many unforeseen risks. Although many of these risks are beyond the control of the shipowners/operators, they should all be carefully weighed during the process of project selection designed for investment decisions. One such risk is the expropriation of shore-based facilities built by the shipping operator at one or more termini of the maritime distribution channel. The operator has to assess the value and probability of risk and translate them into a premium which he will levy on each unit of goods transported. Adding this premium to the required freight rate together with the inventory holding costs and marine insurance charges will produce the real economic cost of transport.