The aim of this article is to examine the development of transport infrastructure (modernisation of railway tracks and development of the motorway and expressway network) and its possible effects on regional development in Slovakia. Accessible transport infrastructure (mainly the motorway network) has influenced many decisions concerning the location of industrial investments. The impact of transport infrastructure on the reduction of regional disparities in Slovakia is limited mainly due to the concentration of transport infrastructure investment in the more developed regions of Slovakia. Poorer regions in eastern Slovakia and the southern part of Central Slovakia are still affected by the unfavourable level of accessibility to the transport infrastructure that creates important conditions affecting their development.

The development of High-Speed Rail has been one of the central features of recent European Union transport infrastructure policy. This paper reviews the developments which have taken place in a number of countries and assesses the outcome. It identifies the lack of genuine network development which has taken place, criticises the failure to provide a more integrated framework between modes and questions the assumptions of improved regional development and cohesion which are claimed for the policy. Instead there is evidence of increasing concentration into the main metropolitan centres served by the emerging network.

Covid-19 has had a major impact on public transport systems across the world. Public financial support has been needed to maintain services in the face of drastically reduced ridership and adjustment to the need for social distancing. This paper explores the challenge this poses to current methods of delivery of public transport services and argues that a simple return to the status quo is unlikely as public transport adjusts to a new normal of more home working and fear of crowded spaces. In turn this impacts most on the transport disadvantaged. The paper argues that this may spell the end of the prevailing model of a deregulated competitive public transport that has prevailed in the United Kingdom and require a major rethinking of the way to provide an efficient and effective transport system. Such a rethink will depend on understanding the interplay of private and social norms and building public trust.

Abstract. Accessibility is widely used term and plays an important role in many scientifi c fi elds. It determines the advantage of one location over the other. Although there are different measures and number of studies on accessibility in the world literature, there are relatively few so far in Poland at the national level. The purpose of this article is to present some results of ongoing research that have been carried out at the IGSO PAS in 2007 and 2008. The projects led to development of methods of calculating time accessibility and the multimodal potential accessibility indicator of the area of Poland. The time accessibility is measured by using the isochronic-based and distance-based accessibility measures. The multimodal potential accessibility indicator is meant to be utilized, for evaluating the possible effects of construction and modernization of the transport network that are envisaged in the EU supported operational programs. The measure may be calculated separately for carriage of goods and passengers, the 16 voivodships (provinces of Poland) and four modes of transport (road, railways, inland waterways and air).