The Polish rail Infrastructure Manager PKP PLK will invest over a billion euros in rail infrastructure. The operator signed contracts for rail upgrades in the country’s southern region of Silesia. With the investments, Poland hopes to reduce traffic congestion and improve connectivity on TEN-T corridors.
PKP PLK signed two contracts with a value of over five billion Polish złoty (over 1 billion euros). The EU’s Connecting Europe Fund will finance the vast majority at 85 per cent of all investments.
Upgrades will be made to rail infrastructure along the Katowice Szopienice Płd. – Katowice – Katowice Piotrowice and Zabrzeg – Zebrzydowice axes. Apart from passenger-related upgrades, the Katowice section will see 22 kilometres of new tracks and a 96-kilometre track reconstruction. Moreover, Poland will replace 133 kilometres of catenaries on the route and over 260 switches. More than 140 structures, including bridges and viaducts, will also be subject to works.
Additionally, upgrades on the Zabrzeg-Zebrzydowice route include the reconstruction of over 100 kilometres of tracks, 120 kilometres of catenaries and safety improvements at 25 facilities. Poland aims to complete all announced upgrades by 2028.
A congested region
Dariusz Klimczak, the Polish infrastructure minister, points out that Silesia is a very congested region. “There are road sections on which over 112,00 vehicles travel daily,” he says. “Our goal is to relieve this traffic and create an attractive offer of railway connections.”
A representative of the Connecting Europe Facility also emphasised the benefits of the investments for congestion, as well as their importance for European infrastructure. “Thanks to EU investments, the [Katowice] agglomeration railway will be further developed. It will reduce the intensity of road traffic and improve the environment,” he says. “At the European level, barriers to international rail passenger and freight transport will be removed on important corridors of the TEN-T Baltic-Adriatic and North Sea-Baltic core networks, including on the Polish-Czech border. Moreover, these projects constitute an important element of the EU’s “Solidarity Lanes” initiative on the Ukraine-Western Europe and Ukraine-Southern Europe axis.”
RailFreight Summit 2024
Are you interested in learning more about rail infrastructure in Poland? Then the RailFreight Summit 2024, taking place between 15 and 17 April in Warsaw, Poland, is the perfect occasion to connect with industry professionals and dive deeper into the topic.
This year’s edition of the RailFreight Summit turns the spotlight on trending issues like the TEN-T expansion, connections with Ukraine, significant projects like Rail Baltica and their potential for the creation of more efficient logistics corridors, Poland’s role as a logistics node and a performance assessment of intra-European and Eurasian services.
You can check the event’s programme here and secure your participation ticket here. Additionally, do not miss the chance to explore the networking and site tour possibilities that could provide excellent opportunities for boosting your business in Poland and the CEE region.
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