Thanks to the work on the Central Railway Line, for the first time in the history of the Polish railway network, a passenger train journey with a maximum speed of 250 km/h will be possible. This is one of the planned outcomes of the new National Railway Programme lasting till 2030 with a possibility of extension for another two years, which was accepted by the government in mid-August. The company PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe SA (PLK SA), which manages the national railway network, has already announced tenders worth over 20 billion PLN and will be ready to sign contracts with contractors upon allocation of funds from the new NRP. This means that investments in the railway industry will gain momentum in the coming years, which will boost the entire economy.
“The investment goals set by our company haven’t changed over the years – we want to improve the availability of railway transport for passengers and freight carriers. The actions we implement focus on improving traffic in agglomerations in order to segregate passenger trains from freight trains and to significantly improve access to seaports—our largest port stations in Poland have now been refurbished and we need to ensure comfortable access by eliminating railway bottlenecks,” says Arnold Bresch, board member and director for investment execution at PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe SA in an interview with Newseria Biznes agency.
The manager of the national railway network is still implementing the National Railway Programme (NRP) worth 79 billion PLN, which includes over 240 projects and the modernization of approximately 9,000 km of railway tracks. According to the data as of the end of August, investments worth almost 35 billion PLN have already been completed as part of the NRP, while projects worth 43.6 billion PLN are still underway.
The NRP primarily aims to significantly improve railway traffic in metropolitan areas, reduce travel time, and enhance travel standards, which are already evident on the Warsaw-Radom or Warsaw-Lublin routes where trains currently take about 1.5 hours. Additionally, it is intended to improve conditions for freight transport. Investments implemented as part of the program include railway lines across Poland, building new and refurbishing existing railway stations and their integration with urban transport, restoring services and launching passenger trains on lines that have been unused for years, as well as railway investments at border crossings and in ports. Examples include modernising strategic railway lines no. 201 and 203, linking Tri-City (Trójmiasto) with Bydgoszcz and then the centre of Poland. Both these investments are crucial for the development of railway infrastructure in northern Poland.
“We need to improve the accessibility of trains to compete with road transport,” highlights Arnold Bresch. “The actions we implement aim to increase the efficiency of the entire transport system. We want to improve access to loading points, but we also need to enhance access to large transport hubs such as seaports. We are conducting these actions and we hope that this will attract the interest of individuals and institutions who transport goods.”
Last year, PLK SA signed contracts for investments worth approximately 10 billion PLN. In the new perspective, the company wants to smoothly transition to the implementation of the next National Railway Program till 2030, with a view to extending it to 2032, which was approved by the government in mid-August (this document is formally the update of the current NRP, which is valid until the end of this year). Therefore, it has already announced tenders worth over 20 billion PLN and claims that upon the allocation of funds from the new NRP, it will be ready to sign contracts with contractors.
“We’re talking about investments of several billion PLN,” says a board member of the railway company. “They are carried out in several segments. We have investments related to EU programs, including CEF ‘Connecting Europe’ or FEnIKS. We also have smaller tasks funded by the state budget, but they are equally important as they focus on building new stops or revitalizing lines to improve communication around agglomerations.”
The new NRP guarantees financing to continue strategic railway projects. Its total value will be approximately 170 billion PLN (including 79 billion PLN for the 2014-2020 perspective, 80 billion PLN for the 2021-2027 perspective, and 11 billion PLN from the National Reconstruction Plan). The main priorities of the programme update include completing large investment projects that have already been started, such as work on the diameter line in Warsaw, building a tunnel in Łódź or modernizing the Gdynia-Słupsk route. Works on key TEN-T network lines (including Katowice-Zebrzydowice) and Rail Baltica on the Białystok-Ełk-Trakiszki section are also to be continued. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, by the end of 2030, almost 1.4 thousand km of railway lines are also to be electrified under all investments planned by PLK SA.
The completion of the NRP 2030 investments will also result in faster connections. For the first time in the history of the Polish railway network, a passenger train journey with a maximum speed of 250 km/h will be possible thanks to works planned on the Central Railway Line (railway line no. 4). This will reduce travel time in the Warsaw-Kraków/Katowice route, amongst others. Furthermore, due to adapting several sections to speeds of 120-200 km/h, travel time will be significantly reduced on routes such as Warsaw-Kołobrzeg, Warsaw-Białystok-Ełk, Białystok-Olsztyn, Warsaw-Radom-Kielce-Kraków Główny, Kraków Główny-Nowy Sącz and Warsaw-Lublin.
“However, there are still blank spots on our railway map, places where trains don’t reach. These are due to delays from previous years,” Arnold Bresch points out. “For some time now, we have been taking actions related to restoring railways to centers where about 10,000 people live, to larger urban centers.”
Kolej Plus is a programme aimed at expanding the railway network with connections to/from towns of a population above 10,000 residents, which don’t have access to passenger connections with provincial cities. It is mainly targeting territorial self-government units or metropolitan associations interested in developing railway infrastructure in their area. The Kolej Plus programme budget was doubled last year – from 5.6 billion PLN to over 11 billion PLN, and 34 projects submitted by local government units were qualified for implementation.
“Communication blank spots also include places with existing railway lines, but they are in such a state that they cannot be used or can only be used very modestly. We will also show up in such places with investment programmes to eliminate bottlenecks and improve accessibility,” promises a board member of PLK SA.
Strategic railway investments planned by the company, which are to stimulate the entire economy, were one of the topics discussed during last week’s Krynica Forum 2023, one of the most important socio-economic congresses in Central and Eastern Europe. This year’s forum was jointly inaugurated by the Presidents of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, as well as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, Han Duck-soo. The event traditionally gathered thousands of guests from Poland and abroad, and hundreds of speakers who discussed the most important challenges for Poland, the CEE region, and Europe as a whole. The operator of the national railway network took an active part in panels on the Polish economy and infrastructure investments.
“The initiatives like these allow us to go beyond the railway industry because we often meet in the railway and construction world and talk about our problems, about how to improve the operation of our railway system. In Krynica, we were able to meet with those for whom we prepare this railway system, meet their specific expectations, and see the context in which we operate. That’s why we highly value the opportunity to participate in the Krynica Forum as it allows us to expand our knowledge about the market,” says Arnold Bresch.
