International railway passenger services have seen considerable changes in Europe over the past few decades. Using international railway connections within and reaching outside the V4 countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) in 1990–2019 as a sample, our paper explores trends and patterns in that matter in Central Europe. We have found that the characteristic focus on relatively very frequent short or medium-distance connections using the best equipped railway corridors – paralleled by a considerable reduction of the remaining services – has also been clearly in evidence in this part of the world. However, trends and patterns in Central Europe are not necessarily a mirror image of what has occurred in Western Europe. For instance, although a considerable shortening of travel times has indeed been observed, it has been achieved – characteristically – thanks to the improved permeability of state borders after the enlargement of the EU in 2004, with only moderate improvements to infrastructure being made. Central Europe therefore seems to be the prime example of an area in which contextual, political and geopolitical factors are the keys to understanding the dynamics of changes in transport systems. On the other hand, evidence from this region may give rise to some reflections on the possible roles for the European long-distance rail transport in the future. To begin with, our results show 800 km to be the threshold beyond which the competitive position of rail becomes significantly lower. Secondly, competitive pressure from innovative newcomers (Regiojet, LeoExpress, Arriva) clearly makes national incumbents more flexible and pro-active. Thirdly, the noticeable spatial re-orientation of international railway connections from the V4 countries towards Vienna and Munich (at the expense of Berlin) that we have observed is partly related to the appeal of these cities as multimodal gates with excellent locations within European transport networks. It would therefore seem that the railways in this part of Europe have been attempting to become an integral part of the international multi-modal long-distance transport system.

在过去的几十年中，国际铁路客运服务在欧洲发生了巨大变化。以1990-2019年V4国家（捷克共和国，匈牙利，波兰，斯洛伐克）内外的国际铁路连接为样本，我们的论文探索了中欧在这方面的趋势和模式。我们已经发现，在这一地区，这种特征也集中在使用装备最完善的铁路走廊的相对非常频繁的短距离或中距离连接上，同时大量减少了剩余的服务，这一点也很明显。但是，中欧的趋势和模式不一定与西欧的情况完全相同。例如，尽管确实发现旅行时间大大缩短，由于欧盟在2004年扩大后，国家边界的通透性得到了提高，而基础设施仅进行了适度的改进，因此，这一目标的实现是有特色的。因此，中欧似乎是该地区的主要例子，在该地区，背景，政治和地缘政治因素是理解运输系统变化动态的关键。另一方面，来自该地区的证据可能会对欧洲长途铁路运输在未来可能扮演的角色产生一些思考。首先，我们的结果表明800公里是一个界限，超过这个界限，铁路的竞争地位将大大降低。其次，来自创新者（Regiojet，LeoExpress，Arriva）的竞争压力显然使本国企业更加灵活和积极主动。第三，我们观察到，从V4国家到维也纳和慕尼黑的国际铁路连接的明显空间重新定向（以柏林为代价）部分与这些城市作为欧洲交通网络中具有优越地理位置的多式联运登机口的吸引力有关。因此，看来欧洲的这一部分铁路正在试图成为国际多式联运长途运输系统的组成部分。