Rail Transport Track
SLOVENIAN RAILORADS
Rail transport
Is the transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. A railway can be broken down into two major components. Basically these are the items which “move”, the locomotives, passenger carrying vehicles (coaches), freight carrying vehicles (goods wagons / freight cars) and those which are “fixed”, usually referred to as its infrastructure. This category includes the permanent way (tracks) and buildings (stations, freight facilities, viaducts and tunnels). The operation of the railway is through a system of control, originally by mechanical means, nowadays, in most places, electronic and computerised. The volume of traffic on the line dictates the number of tracks required for its operation. These consist of short stretches of double track which allow trains to pass each another. Alternatively, and particularly on freight lines, there may be longer sections of the line that are double track. These sections must be able to accommodate the longest train which normally works on that line. Effective traffic control is carried out by a “token” system. where only one token is available for each single line section. Originally this token was physically exchanged between signalman and driver, later by mechanical means using a device on the locomotive cab side whilst nowadays this system has largely been replaced by an electronic system.
The development path of Slovenske železnice leads us past old Austria, which Slovenia formed part of until 1918, when Slovenians could witness the start and flourishing of railways in their country. Therefore, the table unavoidably contains major events from the histories of both Austrian and Slovenian railways.
Infrastructure
Transport corridors
Because of political and economical co-operation between European countries after 1990, the need emerged to design a trans-European transport network including all types of transport and to join all European countries by 2010. In railway transport, the network is composed of ten trans-European corridors: 5th corridor and 10th corridor
Types of railway track
Railway tracks are divided into main and local tracks. They are also divided by the number of tracks. One of them are one-track rails (trains use the same track for both directions) and the others are two-track rails (each track is used for train traffic in a certain direction.
Superlatives and statistic dates
In terms of the length of the lines and its infrastructure, it is difficult to compare Slovenian railroad with other railway in Europe. However, given Slovenia’s geographical variety our lines involve some interesting information. Some of those are: The steepest line is from Prvačina to Štanjel, the highest railway station is 582 above see level and the lowest is in Koper only 3 m above see level. The longest bridge is in Novo mesto (575 m). The highest bridge is in Most na Soči which is 30 m high. The oldest line is form Šentilj to Celje which was bild on 2 June 1846.
Some statistics dates for Slovenian railway: The length of all lines of railway is 1228,6 km. There number of viaducts and culverts is 3.181 and there length is 13,1 km. There are also 93 tunnels and galleries and there length together is 37,3 km. In Slovenia we also have 128 stations, 11 of them are only for freight transport, 10 for passenger transport and 107 for combined transport.
International transport
In Slovenia passenger transportation is not as important as cargo transportation. That is especially because the trains in Slovenia are slow, uncomfortable, and quite old. Luka Koper is a very important factor for railways and the international transport in Slovenia. Cargo arrives to Slovenia by see and in the harbor it is unloaded of ships and it continues its way mostly by railways to countries like: Austria, Slovakia, Hungary,…
In Slovenia the biggest percent of passengers represent the students. And that is especially because of their economical condition. But in many countries across the Europe the trains travel with speeds up to 300 km/hour, are much more punctual, comfortable and also cheep.
Slovenia has a direct railway connection with some of those countries. From Ljubljana it is possible to travel to some of European countries.
TICKETS AND DISCOUNTS
There are a lot of different kinds of tickets and discounts. Different companies give discount to different passengers. Mostly yang people to the age 26 have discounts, and also children and elderly. Some railway companies give discount also to larger groups.
SLEEPING CARS AND COUCHETTES
Because travelling abroad usually means that journeys will be long, passengers have a possibility to decide for sleeping cars or couchettes. Usually that is possible if the departure is at night. The advantage for travelling with night trains is that you are well-rested, because you are able to get some sleep. Night trains are very convenient if you travel from one city to a another city and you have a byssi schedule.
TRANSPORTING CARS AND ANIMALS
Cars and bicycles can be transported to trains, but only on certain stations, and at certain time. Cars must not be to high or to heavy. Reservations for cars must be made early enough, and you must be there early enough to load the vehicles. Animals can also be transported, but only smaller animals. The owners are fully responsible for their pet. But the animal must not disturb other passengers.
Inland transport
1. DISCOUNTS: Special discounts have children and youth, the elderly and pensioners, families, bigger groups, groups of young people, groups of children,…
2. TYPES OF TICKETS;
One way: They sell one-way tickets for all types of trains, for all days of the week, up to two months in advance.
Return: They sell return tickets for all types of trains, for all days of the week, up to two months in advance.
School: For primary school pupils, secondary school pupils, apprentices and students of college and university programmes, for daily journeys from the place of ones residence to the place of schooling or of performing obligatory practice, and back.
Semi-annual, Annual and Monthly: All passengers can buy tickets, whereas student tickets are reserved for pupils, students and apprentices upon submitting the appropriate evidence (certificate or application).
Flat rate: For those wishing to travel on all lines of Slovenske železnice on all types of trains, first or second class.
Slovenian Rail Pass: Slovenian Rail Pass is valid for an unlimited number of journies in Slovenia within 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 successive days. It is intended for persons, who do not live in Slovenia.
3. WAGON OR TRAIN RENTAL-it is possible to rent special wagons attached to regular trains or even an entire special train. A special wagon must be ordered at least 8 days in advance and a special train at least 15 days in advance.
4. TRAIN AND BUS – Combined Train & Bus Ticket
Combined train & bus tickets (weekly and monthly tickets), in co-operation between Slovenian Railways and KAM-BUS since 1996, are available for the Ljubljana-Kamnik line.