The spread of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has urged to take special actions to limit the level of contagion. The unprecedented scale of measures declared by the national governments in nearly every country ot the world would have a huge impact on public transport services and in general, on the citizens travel behaviours. This paper endeavours to give an overview of the emerged epidemic situation caused by COVID-19 in Hungary and some of its neighbouring Central and South-East European countries. It identifies the most important public transport service changes together with their interrelated impacts on the mobility patterns. The responses vary country per country so an overall comparison shows novel findings on emergency transport management policies.

The objective of the article is to present the influence of COVID-19 on international and long distance passenger rail transport in Italy and Poland. Despite differences in the development of the pandemic the decision to put limits on long-distance rail services was taken in both countries at the very same time. On 23 March 2020 the last large-scale cancellations so far were introduced both in Italy and Poland. The entire rail transport in the two countries has been stopped to a very large extent. The only remaining international trains in Italy and Poland are cross-border regional trains operated by some railway companies from the neighbouring countries – France and Switzerland in the case of Italy and Germany in the case of Poland. As far as long-distance rail traffic is concerned, in Italy over 90% of all trains of this kind have been cancelled whereas in Poland the figure is 43%. A similar characteristic is the fact that almost all prestigious high speed trains have been cancelled. This is probably connected with the fact that their main target are business trips which in the time of pandemic have come almost to a complete stop.

The development of the SARS-CoV-2 virus epidemic and the associated restrictions on mobility have affected many sectors of the economy, but one of the first to suffer especially was passenger air transport. None of the previous crises in the aviation industry had been so significant and so global. At the beginning of April 2020, air passenger traffic decreased by around 70% globally and by around 90% in Europe compared to 2019. At some European airports, very few air operations were carried out, or they were even completely suspended. The loss of revenues by entities from the aviation sector caused their significant financial problems, which cannot be solved without external support. After lifting the travel restrictions, a reduction in demand for travel by air can be expected. Most likely, the carrier market will consolidate, and the connection network will be reduced, which may aggravate the problems of some already unprofitable airports.

Mid-March 2020 surprised societies of many countries with restrictions resulting from a need to curb the spread of a pandemic caused by a new type of coronavirus. Poland joined this group very quickly. The growing isolation of society also had an impact on non-urban public transport, especially one that was operated at the carriers’ own risk. The author of the article had a database, current as of spring 2019, with the number of bus connections in the area of six counties covering the ranges of the Low Beskids and the Bieszczady Mountains. This was an ideal starting point for trying to answer the question what the situation is like almost exactly a year later. Based on a study conducted in early April 2020, a catastrophic picture of public transport in the area has emerged. In the case of Bieszczady and Lesko Counties, there was a total lack of local bus connections. In Sanok, Krosno, Jasło and Gorlice Counties, the network of connections serving mainly the capitals of these units of administrative division has been severely limited. One of the main reasons for the observed process is suspension of school activities. This is also accompanied by a reduction in adult mobility resulting from a fear of a serious disease and a greater tendency to use other means of transport, as well as resignation from commuting by people working in jobs where remote work is possible or in companies that suspended their activity. Maintaining this situation poses a threat of huge economic problems for carriers. If it continues for many months, it may result in difficulties in traveling to schools that may appear after the holidays.

Despite widespread information about COVID-19 disease in the media, the world did not want to acknowledge that the epidemic could get out of hand and reach Europe in a short time. This shortly led to an almost complete halt in the tourism market. Administrative decisions, whose rapid implementation was aimed to be pre-emptive action for the development of the epidemic, were not without significance for the sector of tourist services. Steps taken in Poland were perceived by many people as too drastic. This is proved, in consistence with the Senbeto and Hon model (2020), by the fact that part of the society did not obey the restrictions, taking previously planned tourist trips. The article presents actions taken at the national level and restrictions resulting from actions taken with regard to mobility related to the implementation of tourist objectives. An attempt was also made to present the consequences of the pandemic for the tourist traffic in national terms.

The aim of the paper is to compare the scale of regional train cancellation in Italy and Poland in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic and to answer the question whether different approaches to public transport limitation can be observed at national and regional scales in different European countries. The article is a preliminary study and as such contains the first observations and initial conclusions. From the analysis it results that the influence of COVID-19 on regional railway transport in both Italy and Poland is strong but much different. In Italy the scale of cancellation is generally larger and so are the differences between the regions. In both analysed countries the lines which have turned out to be mostly affected by suspension are urban and suburban connections with dense train traffic. It would seem that in Italy exactly as in Poland the train cancellations are more the result of the character of the operated rail system, the different approaches to regional rail transport and of the tendency to cut costs than of the actual epidemic situation in the regions.

As no effective treatment or vaccine have yet been developed, the only way to prevent the spread of SARS-Cov-2 is to introduce social distancing measures. Scientific discussion regarding their actual effectiveness and socio-economic consequences has only just begun. Both declining mobility and changes in mobility patterns are obvious effects of social distancing. The main objective of this article is to present spatial diversity of changes in regional and local mobility in Poland with the use of data gathered and provided by Google LCC. As for the regional dimension, the mobility has declined steadily in most of the analysed areas. The regional changes were more visible only in the case of the following categories of areas: grocery & pharmacy and parks. The initial correlation analysis has shown that distribution of those changes more or less reflects spatial voting patterns. Both historical and cultural factors may explain such results, including ingrained habits, collective attitudes towards politics and group values. In the local context, illustrated by the analysis of changes in travel time from housing areas in Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot to the business and science centre in Gdańsk-Oliwa, a noticeable yet spatially diversified decrease in drive time (by private car) has been observed. The most significant reduction in travel time was recorded in peripheral areas accessible by high-speed roads which are normally jammed during peak hours. The mobility constraints have led to highly reduced traffic congestion, and consequently, shortened the travel time.

The beginning of 2020 was associated with the appearance of the global coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The spread of the epidemic caused the introduction of an epidemiological emergency in Poland in early March (on March 12). This resulted in reduced public transport, including regional rail transport. In Lower Silesia, this concerned regional and fast connections. The conducted analysis concerns regional connections and is based on exploration of the spatial and the quantitative aspect of these changes. The transport offer before and after the announcing of the epidemic was analysed. The results showed that most of the transport restrictions concerned the peripheries of the voivodeship (local routes). Agglomeration routes were much less affected by the restrictions. On some lines a decrease to less than 5 pairs of connections per day was recorded. Once the restrictions are removed, it may be a challenge to encourage passengers to use railways again. Despite the low number of connections on many routes, rail transport can still be considered as the basis of the transport system. This is due to the lack of an alternative bus service.