Before 1989, transport in the former Czechoslovakia met its tasks based on the controlling principles of
planned economy, focused eastwards and oriented on cooperation between the Eastern Bloc countries
within COMECOM. Due to the preference for raw material extraction and heavy industry, the transport
sector dealt mainly with transporting commodities of these branches with high demands in volume. The
planned economic principles were also reflected by the consistent division of transport work with a
preference for stack substrate transport by rail.
The change of the political and economic circumstances in November 1989 influenced the life and
needs of society substantially. A market economy has come, focused on the market of developed
European countries and having an impact on the transport sector as such, individual transport systems,
transport preferences and transported commodities [2].
As at 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia has been divided into two independent countries, i.e. the Czech
Republic and Slovakia. Therefore the following data from the Transport Statistics of the Czech Republic
[1] are comparable starting from 1994. The authors of the article had data available until 2006.
