Railways of the Slovak Republic (,

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

: ''ŽSR'') is the

state-owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

infrastructure company of

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. The company was established in 1993 as the successor to the

Czechoslovak State Railways Czechoslovak State Railways (''Československé státní dráhy'' in Czech or ''Československé štátne dráhy'' in Slovak, often abbreviated to ČSD) was the state-owned railway company of Czechoslovakia. The company was founded in 1918 ...

() in Slovakia following the

dissolution of Czechoslovakia The dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which took effect on December 31, 1992, was the Self-determination, self-determined Partition (politics), partition of the federal republic of Fifth Czechoslovak Republic, Czechoslovakia into the independent ...

. It had a formal monopoly on railroad transportation in Slovakia until 1996, and while other rail transport companies have since been allowed to operate in the countryfor example,

RegioJet RegioJet a.s. ( VKM: RJ) is a private Czech provider of passenger rail and bus transport. The company Student Agency, owned by Czech businessman Radim Jančura, is the sole owner. A sister company of the same name, with its registered office i ...

, a private provider, has been operating passenger rail lines since 2012, it has retained a de facto monopoly. In 2002, the Slovak parliament passed a law dividing the company. ŽSR was tasked with infrastructure maintenance, while passenger and freight transport was moved to Železničná spoločnosť. In 2005, this new company was further split into

Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko, a.s. (ZSSK) (') is a Slovak state-owned passenger train company based in Bratislava. In 2002 a company Železničná spoločnosť was established as a successor of personal and cargo transport part of the ...

,Slovak rail ZSSK
which provides passenger services, and

Železničná spoločnosť Cargo Slovakia Železničná spoločnosť Cargo Slovakia, a. s. (ZSSK CARGO, VKM: ZSSKC) is the Slovak state-owned freight train operator based in Bratislava. It was established on 1st January 2005 by separating Železničná spoločnosť into two different c ...

,ZSSK Cargo
/ref> which provides freight services.

Bodies

The governing bodies of ŽSR are the Management Board and General Director.

Management board of ŽSR

The Management Board is the top body of the railways. It has nine members—six members of them are experts from the transport sector, finance, banking, economics and law, three are elected as representatives of the railway employees. Board members are appointed and dismissed by the Minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic, three of them are appointed and dismissed by the proposal based on the election of the employees. The office of the Management Board of ŽSR provides administrative and technical operations. General inspection SR ŽSR performs inspection and control of organizational units of ŽSR and provides tasks associated with improvement of the management system and compliance with legislative regulation, monitors implementation of decisions of ŽSR and gives suggestions for their implementation.

General director

The general director manages the activities of ŽSR and is responsible for its performance and the results to the Management Board. The general director is a statutory body of ŽSR. He represents the company externally and is acting on its behalf in all matters except the matters that are in the exclusive competence of the Management Board or the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications. The general director is represented by four agents responsible for specific departments of ŽSR. The general director is appointed and dismissed by the Minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications.

Deputies of General Director

The general director manages the Department of Director General and has four deputies who are in charge of handling the activity in other departments. Sections and branches associated with the departments are subject to the deputy.

Organizational structure

Railways of Slovak Republic is further divided into Headquarters and Management and maintenance of railway infrastructure.

Headquarters

Departments of Director General: * Department of Deputy Director General for Development and IT * Department of Deputy Director General for Economy * Department of Deputy Director General for Operation * Department of Deputy Director General for Human Resources All departments are located in the capital city, Bratislava.

Management and maintenance of railway infrastructure

Management of railway infrastructure

This section has two local departments. The first one is situated on the West of the Slovak Republic in Trnava and the second location is on the East of the Slovak Republic in Košice.

Maintenance of railway infrastructure

Maintenance of railway

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

is divided into two regional headquarters and two divisions. *Regional Headquarters in the locality of Zvolen *Regional Headquarters in the locality of Žilina *Bridge Division in Košice *Bridge Division in Bratislava

Representation abroad

Railways of Slovak Republic are represented in international organizations in Brussels, Belgium and Warszawa, Poland. * CER - Community of European Railway; Brussels,

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

* OSJD – Organization for Cooperation of Railways; Warszawa,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Passenger transport

Detailed information about pricing is published on the websites of individual companies providing passenger transport: *

, a. s. (ZSSK) *

(RJ)

Notes

References

Official website

Annual report 2008

Slovak rail ZSSKZSSK Cargo
*© ŽSR - Železničné telekomunikácie na základe publikácie: Dejiny železníc na území Slovenska, Ing. Jiří Kubáček CSc, History of railways of Slovak Republic

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeleznice Slovenskej republiky Railway companies of Slovakia Railway infrastructure managers