Poland’s Council of Ministers has approved the country biggest-ever railway investment programme.
By 2023, 67 billion zł (€16 billion) will have been spent upgrading the Polish rail network. Key projects include greater implementation of ERTMS and increasing the number of routes that support line speeds of 160 km/h.
Poland’s infrastructure manager, PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe, said tenders worth 11 billion zł (€2.6 billion) would be announced later this year for schemes to upgrade several key routes, including Warsaw-Lublin, Wroclaw-Poznan and Warsaw-Poznan.
“This is an important day for railway transport in Poland,” said Marcin Mochocki, PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe board member, adding: “Passenger rail travel has returned to the game.”
A number of projects will be co-financed by the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
Other projects to be undertaken in the investment period include various capacity improvement and gauge enhancement schemes. PKP said it will introduce measures to improve level crossing safety and, for the freight industry, will increase capacity on rail routes serving the ports of Gdansk, Gdynia, Szczecin and Swinoujscie.
