This case study presents the cross-border railway connection as a public transport service between Gorzanów (Poland) – Lichkov (Czechia). 

It explores the business model of this service, including its governance arrangements, operational provisions to develop the service and address demand, and its territorial scope. The investigated route is a part of one of the main Polish national railway lines connecting Wrocław Główny (Poland) with Prague via Lichkov. The case study shows the challenges of meeting local needs in a framework where latent demand is not well known and when operational and governance structures are driven by higher administrative levels in a framework of mostly centralised decision-making. The case study presents the key obstacles to the service, such as inadequate infrastructure. Solutions to this barrier is discussed before the concluding section where the lessons learnt from this services are reflected upon. 

This case study report is part of a series of 31 case studies developed in the framework of the study ‘Providing public transport in cross-border regions – Mapping of existing services and legal obstacles’, completed by Spatial Foresight in cooperation with TCP international, TRT trasporti e territorio and EureConsult for the European Commission’s DG REGIO.