I propose to improve rail transport in the Republic of Slovenia.
1) Dismiss all ticket sellers and ticket agents (hereafter: ticket sellers). Replace ticket sellers with ticket vending machines - ones that also change change. It is no problem to buy these machines somewhere in the euro area (to make them euro-ready), put Slovenian signs on them and put them in railway stations. In fact, virtually all railway stations in Europe have such machines. The savings from automating ticket sales would be enormous, as the labour costs of ticket sellers would be eliminated. The first year's capital investment would be recouped in the following year, and the severance costs would be recouped in a further year.
2) 95 % of ticket inspectors and ticket controllers (hereafter referred to as 'ticket inspectors') to be made redundant. The remaining ticket inspectors inspect tickets on a sample basis on a certain number of trains on a certain route, following the example of Ljubljana City Passenger Transport. In the event that someone does not have a ticket, he/she pays a fine of EUR 40, which is a revenue either for Slovenian Railways or the State budget. Here, the highest cost would be the severance payments, which would be recouped by more passengers coming to the railways, as rail transport would become friendlier. Alternatively, a system could be introduced whereby when a passenger wants to get on to a platform, they insert their ticket into a machine to open the door to the platform (e.g. in the UK).
3) Trains should run every day of the week on all routes. On some routes there are no trains on Sundays. E.g. Ljubljana - Kamnik - Ljubljana and Celje - Velenje - Celje. This prevents people from using the train on Sundays to get to these destinations, which in turn reduces the number of passengers on the railways.
4) All railway stations should be provided with written train announcements and warnings about delays. This will contribute to making rail transport more passenger-friendly.
5) In the medium term, with the help of EU funding, build a second track on all railway lines in Slovenia and eliminate unnecessary detours on existing single-track (e.g. at Kozina) and double-track (e.g. between Brezovica and Logatec) railway lines. It is also necessary to modernise and allow higher speeds on all other railway lines in Slovenia. Eliminate all level crossings and ensure road traffic safety along the railway (if not otherwise by fencing) (I have read e.g. that on the line to Maribor the train runs slow only because road traffic safety is not guaranteed. This will allow faster and more frequent rail traffic on all railway lines in Slovenia, which in turn will bring additional passengers back to the railway. This will also improve the quality of rail freight transport and thus increase the amount of freight transported by rail.
6) In the longer term, new rail links should be built in Slovenia. Many places in Slovenia are located far away from the nearest rail link, which makes it impossible for the population of these places to use rail transport.
I believe that we can help with all of these modernisations with funding from the EU's Structural and Cohesion Funds, which is why I believe that the cost to Slovenia will not be unreasonably high. This will also allow the construction industry to be relaunched and will also create new jobs.