Pertvarkytų geležinkelio įmonių veiklos ypatumai

The article deals with the reorganization process in Europon Railways, the first stage of which has been entered by the Lithuanian railway transport. EU Directive 91/440 recommends to separate operations and infrastructure management, to open access to the operation process for the third parties, to privatize railway objects and guarantee independent economic activities with full responsibility for the results. Great attention is paid to the task of railway enterprises to create new organizational and managerial structures, change finance management systems. It is of utmost importance for a company under reorganization to make a clear definition of goals set to new structure and activity characteristics as well as to the ways of their achievement. It is also necessary to set clear goals to each sphere of activities and each management level. Responsibility of commercial enterprices comprising the enterprise for the fulfillment of operational characteristics is composed of responsibility for income and expence index, or, in other words, for the market position and responsibility for sales of products and services. Decentralization and broader authorized rights turns management of certain elements (income, costs) into goal (profit, selfsupport) management. Separation of accounting systems of the infrastructure and operations gives railway enterprises equal starting positions in comparison to other operators, allows better control of using the state subsidies and prevents their use to compensate loses. Another part of the article shows how the changing governmental attitude and other outer factors influence the activities of operators. Changes taking place in different countries give new views on competition. For this purpose, it is necessary, instead of the existing freight departments, to create several competitive operating companies to be privatized in future. Another means to be used is to create conditions for free operation activities and access to the infrastructure for other companies, thus enhancing competition in this transport sector. It is necessary to create a new infrastructure fee system based on nondiscrimination principle, the more so, that railway operators' fee instead of being constant should be dependent on railway infrastructure usage. The article also deals with more important issues of the third parties' entrance into the transportation process. A competition between modes of transport, with old and new railway operators in an equal starting position, will enhance to intensify efforts in applying organizational and technical innovations and reducing costs. In most European countries socially necessary transportation services are realized on the basis of a contract with the state. Railway enterprices should try to keep their position in selling these services as they already possess the necessary technical base and experience. To tins purpose enterprices have to increase the quality of services and decrease costs, as the society press may increase the risk of losing market shares These arc conditions inspiring development and assurance of a longterm existence of a company.