The CPK applies for EU co-financing of preparatory works for the construction of a section of the railway line connecting Katowice with Ostrava. The cross-border investment is to be carried out by the CPK in cooperation with the Czech railway infrastructure administrator SŽDC
The CPK has a chance to receive 1.5 million euro under the EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for the preparatory works for the construction of the route from the Polish-Czech border to the connection with the Chybie-Żory line (near Jastrzębie Zdrój). The planned 30 km section is the missing link in the TEN-T Trans-European Transport Network.CPK’s application for CEF co-financing would also include analytical works for the entire project of lines connecting the Katowice region with the Czech city of Ostrava.
The railway infrastructure is capital intensive and therefore it needs to be co-financed from the national and EU budgets. This is the first application for co-financing under the CEF for investments under the CPK Railway Program
This application is a proof that our investments include not only railway connections within the country, but also contribute to a better railway communication between Poland and its neighbors. The investment will connect Jastrzębie-Zdrój, a town with nearly 90 thousand inhabitants, i.e. the largest town in Poland now without access to railway, to the long-distance network
The letter of intent signed this week between the CPK and SŽDC announces the establishment of a working group composed of experts from both countries. The aim is to cooperate closely on the implementation of new lines: design and construction of missing infrastructure, increase of railway network capacity and reduction of travel time for railway connections between Poland and the Czech Republic.
The cooperation defined in the letter of intent goes beyond the latest CEF application, including coordination of the preparation and construction of not only the new cross-border Katowice-Ostrava line, but also the Wrocław-Prague line (as the planned elements of the TEN-T network). The Parties undertook to cooperate closely in the determination of the exact route, including the determination of the location of theinterface points of the line at the border of the states, as well as to agree on detailed technical parameters of the investment. The scope of cooperation includes, i.a., the exchange of information, technical documentation, analytical studies and study works as well as support in the scope facilitating the planning, preparation and implementation of the project.
The above investments will be part of the CPK Program which assumes construction of approx. 1600 km of new lines (the so-called spoke railway lines) running from 10 directions to the new airport and to Warsaw. These lines will ensure the coherence of the national railway network, connecting the voivodship cities with the capital, with the CPK, as well as with each other. As part of the zero-stage which should be ready before CPK Airport becomes operational, 140 km of a new high-speed line will be built on the Warsaw-CPK -Łódź route.
Each of the 10 spokes leading to the CPK will consist of: new track sections and renovated or modernized parts of the existing infrastructure. For the purposes of construction of this railway system, investment tasks have already been divided between the following companies: CPK, responsible for execution of airport and railway tasks (construction of new lines), and PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe, which is the railway infrastructure administrator in Poland and is responsible for modernization of the existing lines.