Keywords delay causes, rail transport schedule investigation
IntroductionPassenger service quality consists of several factors. Researchers applied and validated the Satisfaction with Travel Scale (STS) method that measures the service experience in public transportation. The results confirmed that service experience is multidimensional, consisting of a cognitive dimension related to service quality and two affective dimensions related to positive activation, such as enthusiasm or boredom, and positive deactivation, such as relaxation or stress (Olsson et al., 2012). One of the most important of the quality factors influencing experience is punctuality. Time keeping of schedule is important both on operational and passenger side. The punctuality is not a simple parameter, but a rather complex indicator. According to it both the operational quality of the organization and the technical state of development can be assessed.Passengers plan their journey according to the schedule and the most uncertain element of travel chain is the interchange. On operational side, guaranteeing the connections is a huge challenge, especially in case of infrastructure in bad condition. For these purposes delay prediction is a helpful tool. A study (Corman et al., 2013) proposes a compromise solution for minimization of train delays by comparison of timetable options.Level of service can be modelled by quality loops. The study of the optimal service quality shows that public transport reliability and thereby volume of clientele is often lower at equilibrium compared to first-best social optimum (Monchambert and Palma, 2014). One component of the quality loop is planned quality that is presented to the passengers by the service provider. This quality level depends on the budget, the standards expected by passengers and the performance of competitors. The provided (realized) quality may be varying day by day because of the external factors. Causes of the differences are: factors of the operator (e.g. technical breakdowns) or independent factors (e.g. weather conditions, incidents, accidents). The aim of our research has been determined on basis of literature review: study, analysis and comparison of traffic characteristics of railway lines with different infrastructure (Lindfeldt, 2011) and similar surveys in Norway where 1000 departures identified many reasons for delay (Harris et al., 2013).