POLAND: The government is backing high speed rail project promoter Centralny Port Komunikacyjny to build the Y-shaped high speed rail network linking Warszawa and the planned CPK air hub to Łódź and then Wrocław and Poznań with funding coming from the national budget.
CPK’s Piotr Rachwalski explained the status of the programme to Railway Gazette International during September’s InnoTrans trade fair in Berlin. Rachwalski was appointed as a member of the management board of the project promoter in August.
In July, Prime Minister Donald Tusk had recommitted his government to partially implementing the CPK programme, following a review of the previous administration’s plans. The incoming government had initially paused work to review the scheme when it came to power at the end of last year.
’We have reviewed the amount that we plan to spend on the scheme. And we can say that the previous government was a little bit too overambitious’, Rachwalski explained.
‘We will start the construction of the Y-shaped network with funding from the Polish national budget and we are ready to complete it by ourselves if necessary. We are seeking and hope to receive at least partial European Union co-financing. We expect that there will be changes in the EU policy soon, and greater financial support will be provided for high speed rail projects than is currently available.
‘However, the rest of the revamped passenger network proposed by the previous government, which included 1 981 km of new lines in total, almost half of which were high speed corridors, is still under review. The lines beyond the Y-shaped core all need further economic considerations and justification in terms of predicted revenues and passenger numbers. We want to ensure that these lines will be able to generate revenue and that train tickets would be widely affordable’, Rachwalski added.
‘We needed to undertake further technical adjustments. Previously the network was designed for a top speed of 250 km/h, but we are increasing it to 320 km/h. The current rail network uses 3 kV DC electrification and the high speed network will use 25 kV 50 Hz, which requires an update to the regulatory framework.
‘We have also reviewed the completion dates and found the 2028 timescale unrealistic. We now aim to complete the Warszawa – Łódź section in 2032 and the links to Wrocław and Poznań in 2035’, he reported.
