The coronavirus pandemic has struck mercilessly in a major part of industries and economic sectors. Those which undoubtedly suffered the most have been the tourist and gastronomy sectors. Due to the numerous restrictions and prohibitions, these sectors have been the most restricted and their functioning practically completely suspended. One of the exceptions is the railway industry which relatively – from a perspective of the whole duration of the pandemic – has noted less loss in comparison to other transportation sectors.
Naturally, the hardest period for transport companies was spring. During that time nearly 90% of passengers gave up taking transport services as well as the majority of railway lines were suspended. The first three months of the pandemic forced the implementation of new strategies, costs reduction and adjusting to the new reality. With the beginning of the summer, the railways functioning returned to its normal course to some extent, but the restrictions still in force made it impossible to fully return to a pre-pandemic state. Society was tired of lockdown, therefore people were impatiently waiting for the very first possible occasion to travel anywhere, even domestically. That is why, by the summer, the decrease in passengers in comparison to the previous summer was only 20%.
The pandemic was particularly severe in the passenger and freight transport sector, but it didn’t stop work on new solutions in railway, transport and international communication. It was an exceptionally good time for translation in the railway sector; companies were investing in development, taking advantage of temporary downtime by working on tenders, restructuring sectors and departments in the transport sector, as well as changes in companies’ functioning. These actions were often related to the need for translations and contact with an agency capable of offering specialists services – one who knows the railway industry from scratch. Our linguists have spent many hours on documents needed for European tenders and translations of instructions and businesses reconstruction plans.
The Coronavirus crisis has become a major challenge for companies and businesses and it has forced them to implement new solutions which are supposed to adjust them to the new reality. The translation industry was undoubtedly able to take advantage of this situation. Thanks to their comprehensive services, they could streamline functioning of the railway through providing professional translations of essential documents needed for making important changes.
(translation: M. L. K.)
