As of Tuesday (December 1) a new amendment to the law on railways has come into force, allowing for people in filthy clothes to be escorted out of railway stations across Slovakia. A similar measure is already in place at bus stations, being introduced following multiple complaints made by the travelling public. Until now, it hasn't been possible to take action against people who disturb other passengers at railway stations by their dirty clothes, appearance or smell, which is viewed as being a long-term problem. The law was drawn up by the Transport, Construction and Regional Development Ministry and approved by Parliament in September, and according to the ministry this measure should improve the provision of passenger services. The amendment also introduces so-called reservation prices, which in practice means that rail transport operators will have to pay for routes that they've been assigned if they don't use them regularly. The incentive behind this measure was that transport operators have often cancelled regular train connections included in rail timetables. According to the ministry, this represented around 59.8 percent of scheduled train kilometres in 2014. Such underutilised routes may even be withdrawn from transport operators in line with the new amendment.

Gavin Shoebridge, Photo: TASR