CZ/SK verze

Railway Unions Call for an Immediate Solution to the Critical State of Slovak Railways

Railway Unions Call for an Immediate Solution to the Critical State of Slovak Railways
photo: TASR/Railway Unions Call for an Immediate Solution to the Critical State of Slovak Railways
12 / 04 / 2023

The Trade Union Association of Trainmen and Dispatchers (OAVD) and the Federation of Trainmen of the Slovak Republic demand to solve the critical condition of Slovak railways as quickly as possible. The situation is so unfavourable that it called for an international disaster when a Czech Pendolino train derailed on the line near Žilina at the beginning of March.

The railway trade unionists have invited the Minister of Transport of the Slovak Republic, representatives of the Value for Money Unit of the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, the management of the Slovak Railways (ŽSR), the Association of Railway Carriers of Slovakia and the Railway Company Slovakia (ZSSK) to a meeting. They did so after they sent an open letter to President Zuzana Čaputová on 29 March about the desolate state of the railway infrastructure.

After the company České dráhy, the representatives of the Czech railway infrastructure, the Railway Infrastructure Administration, also expressed their criticism. They pointed in particular to the delayed modernisation of the Kúty-Lanžhot interstate section, as a result of which the Czech railway people had to temporarily connect the tracks so that the construction on the Czech side could proceed as planned, which cost them ten million Czech crowns.

ŽSR has long complained about the insufficient financing of the Slovak railways. The Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic claims that ŽSR is inefficient in its management and does not use the allocated funds.

Tags