The conditions of use of the vehicle significantly affect the performance results. Traffic conditions in a specific city directly affect the consumption of energy, fuel and emissions of harmful compounds in exhaust fumes. Conduction of the measurements of a vehicle’s performance parameters in operating conditions is very troublesome and is often not possible to realize. An alternative is to use the simulation programs. Vehicle simulation programs offer options related to vehicle models or drive unit components and allow development of new models. Based on the results of simulation testing, it is possible to analyse the level of fuel and energy consumption as well as emissions of harmful compounds in exhaust gases and the operating effectiveness of the drive system in the speed profile. The paper presents the evaluation of the effectiveness of using hybrid electric drive system in passenger cars in medium-sized city traffic conditions using the Kielce example. The simulation tests were based on the speed profiles recorded during real-world test drives in various times of the day. The simulation results were used to conduct an analysis of fuel consumption and pollutant emissions recorded by conventional and hybrid vehicles.

Unconventional drive systems of the urban buses become more and more popular. The reason is clear: reduction of the harmful emissions as well as the fuel consumption reduction. Environmental aspects are becoming of the great importance. Local governments of large cities are “pushing” conventional buses away from city centres, trying to substitute them by the other more environmentally friendly urban vehicles. The goal of the contribution is to present a comparison of the selected types of the urban buses equipped with alternative drive systems under conditions of medium size city. The first part of the paper presents the methodology and construction of urban bus driving cycles prepared for Kielce city (Poland). The next part shows fuel economy and energy consumption obtained from simulation of urban buses powered by conventional diesel engine and hybrid electric drive under the developed driving cycles. The last part presents results of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculations estimated for selected urban buses.

The article discusses the issue of innovation activities of companies in railway transport in Poland in the context of the development of tourism. Transport infrastructure and organization, along with economic, social, ecological and political factors, are the basic stimulators for the development of tourism. In literature on the subject, this problem is rarely discussed. This article is of a review and research nature. The aim of it is to consider the condition of innovativeness of railway transport companies in Poland in the context of its role in the development of tourism in Poland. To attain the goals of this research, a critical analysis of literature on the subject and desk research have been carried out, the latter drawing on the unpublished data of Statistics Poland, referring to Polish companies from section Transportation and storage, class Passenger rail transport, interurban (according to NACE rev.2). The data derive from the three latest editions of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). In the article, there was used data concerning: innovation activity, types of innovation, cooperation during innovative activity, importance of the source of information for innovation activity, importance of the reasons and barriers to not innovate. The data analysis reveals a rather low level of innovativeness of railway transport companies in Poland. In the authors' opinion, this state of affairs is connected with historical and political factors: the structure and failed reforms in this sector and granting development priority to other branches of transport during the structural transformation in Poland.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of buses operated by urban public transport companies powered by alternative fuels and equipped with alternative drive systems. In addition to economic factors, operators should also take environmental aspects into account when purchasing new vehicles. In this case, a useful criterion for selecting a vehicle is the Life Cycle Cost (LCC), which, in addition to the cost of purchasing a bus, takes into account the necessary expenses associated with its maintenance, operation, decommissioning, as well as emissions costs. This paper presents a study of the LCC values, estimated for the entire bus fleet based on several bus replacement variants, taking into account different shares of alternative buses in the transport fleet. Analyses have shown that replacing conventional buses by the compressed natural gas (CNG) powered buses will reduce life cycle cost by 27% compared to the LCC level in 2019. Increasing the share of electric buses in the fleet will significantly reduce the level of emissions of harmful substances contained in exhaust gases.

The capacity limitations of distribution networks, the increasing demands for electricity installation in terms of electricity quality parameters, and the development of electromobility all increase the need to implement systems in order to stabilize and regulate loads for end users. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs), that operate in internal microgrids of enterprises, allow smoothing of electrical power consumption profiles by actively reducing peak demand power. By using BESSs to implement a peak shaving strategy to reduce the peak power consumption of a company in an external network, energy efficiency can be improved by reducing contractual capacity. The aim of this study is to determine the conditions for the use of energy storage, in order to implement a peak shaving strategy for which the installation of the enterprise microgrid is economically efficient. The analysis of the operating conditions of the BESS should take into account the size of the energy storage, the characteristics of the demand profile for the demand systems, the charges related to electricity, and the costs of electricity storage. In the study, the size of the energy storage was related to the power and electrical capacity of the BESS that was used to implement the peak shaving strategy. The article presents the results of research on the method for determining an effective capacity and power of BESSs for enterprise microgrid systems. The technical and cost limitations of the actual microgrid system, which affected the decrease in economic efficiency of the peak shaving strategy in the company research, were taken into account. The simulations of the operation of the electricity storage system, based on real data of the demand of production companies, were based on the rules and market conditions in Poland.