Tenders for railway feasibility studies for 560 km of new lines by the end of the year

According to PAP, the first proceedings on a technical, economic and environmental study (STEŚ) for over half a thousand kilometers of high-speed railway lines are ready. Their launch is planned simultaneously with the opening of the new airport. It was added that an information notice was published in the EU's Official Journal on this matter.

Tenders are to be announced in November and December. According to PAP, specific dates depend on obtaining corporate approvals by the company under the ownership supervision by the Ministry of State Assets.

According to the plans, within 560 km of new railway lines, the tenders are to cover the sections:

• West Warsaw Stastion- CPK- Łódź (excluding the section in the area of ​​the CPK junction);
• Łódź – Wrocław; Żarów-Świdnica-Wałbrzych-border with the Czech Republic;
• Chybie – Jastrzębie Zdrój – Godów – border with the Czech Republic;
• Łętownia – Rzeszów; Ostrołęka – Łomża; Trawniki – Krasnystaw – Zamość,

as well as the CPK railway junction (in the area of ​​the CPK Airport).

The planned deadline for the technical, economic and environmental study for these sections is 10 to 12 months from the conclusion of the contract. Railway investments selected by the CPK for the inventory and study are planned for implementation before the end of 2027.

“The list of sections to be covered by the technical-economic-environmental study coincides with those for which the CPK company signed further contracts for nature inventories from the end of August this year. To save time, both studies – inventories and STEŚ – will take place simultaneously” – provides PAP.

CPK railway investments cover almost 1,800 km of new lines, which are to be built by the end of 2034. The CPK Railway Program consists of 12 railway routes, including 10 so-called spokes leading from various regions of Poland to Warsaw and CPK.

CPK is a planned transfer junction between Warsaw and Łódź, which will integrate air, rail and road transport. As part of this project, the CPK Airport will be built 37 km west of Warsaw, on an area of ​​approximately 3,000 hectares, which in the first stage will be able to handle 45 million passengers per year.

(PAP)

On Tuesday and Wednesday, a first round of talks takes place as part of the competitive dialog with the airports: Incheon in Seoul and Narita in Tokyo. The strategic advisor is to provide CPK with additional operational and commercial know-how on the efficient management of large transfer airports, which is necessary at the stage of master planning and design.

Since Poland has not implemented investment projects of this scale yet, CPK decided to take advantage of international experience by harnessing in the project the competences and resources held by the administrators of the best organized airports of the world.

SAYS MARCIN HORAŁA, GOVERNMENT PLENIPOTENTIARY FOR CPK.

Incheon and Narita airports have extensive consultancy experience in various parts of the world. The Seoul AirPort management company participated in airport investment projects in more than 20 locations of the world, including Turkey, Indonesia and Kuwait. Tokyo airport representatives participated in projects of this type among others in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

For the role of the strategic advisor to CPK, we are looking for a global hub manager with experience in international projects related to planning, construction and management of a large transfer airport, including cargo transport

EXPLAINS MIKOŁAJ WILD, CEO OF CPK.

The selection of the strategic adviser is one of the milestones of CPK implementation. The procedure will be completed this year. The agreement will be signed for a period of up to three years as it concerns the planning and design stages of the airport investment project.

In addition to the airport information, CPK has provided today details of the railway investments to be carried out between 2020 and 2034. The investment program of CPK assumes the construction of a network of new railway lines, including high-speed railways, which will connect most regions of Poland with Warsaw and the planned CPK within 2.5 hours.

Preparatory works are planned to be launched already this year for five railway lines with a total length of 563 km:

• Warsaw – CPK – Łódź – Sieradz – Wrocław – Wałbrzych – Polish border (Poland/Czech Republic)
• Ostrołęka – Łomża
• Trawniki – Krasnystaw – Zamość
• Łętownia – Rzeszów
• Chybie – Jastrzębie Zdrój – Godów – Polish border (Poland/Czech Republic)

These investment projects will be prepared first in order to commence construction works in 2023. The schedule assumes that before the end of 2023 the following should be in progress: earthworks, construction works (in the scope of selected disciplines), works on removal of conflicts with underground infrastructure and preparation of the area for the main works.

The Company’s goal for the next months will be to present technical solutions for selected lines, e.g. construction of new railway lines through selected areas on trestle bridges or in tunnels. This year, the first environmental surveys are to be commenced, which will constitute the basis for implementation of the procedure of the environmental impact assessment.

Some large cities, such as Jastrzębie-Zdrój and Łomża, today have no railway connections. CPK rail investment projects, which aim to combat transport exclusion, are a unique opportunity to finally restore rail to many regions in Poland.

SAYS PIOTR MALEPSZAK, MEMBER OF CPK MANAGEMENT BOARD FOR RAILWAY INVESTMENT PROJECTS.

CPK railway investment projects plan consists of a total of 12 routes, including 10 so-called spokes running from various regions of Poland to Warsaw and CPK. In total, there are 30 investment tasks and 1,789 km of new railway lines, the investor of which is CPK, and which are to be completed by the end of 2034.

The construction and operation of the CPK Airport will give a powerful boost for the economy, the labor market and economic growth. The CPK project involves a stable schedule of planning, designing and construction of infrastructureinvestment projects scattered throughout Poland, which will be a boost to hundreds of companies and sectors, giving tens of thousands of jobs.

The concept of the preparation and construction of CPK Airport foresees that CPK will create a total of almost 150 thousand jobs, of which about 40 thousand related directly to the operation of the hub and another 110 thousand within the economic sectors related to the port, e.g. in the logistics, tourism, hotel, developer, trade and services sectors.

The airport industry is a major stimulus for the labor market in many parts of the world. According to the Investor’s estimates, about 20 thousand people will find jobs at the peak period of construction of the new terminal at Changi airport in Singapore. With the launch of Barajas airport in Madrid, as many as 300 thousandjobs were created (directly and in related industries) and Charlesde Gaulle airport in Paris contributed in the same way to the creation of almost 200 thousand jobs.

CPK will be an airport in Europe meeting the highest sanitary and epidemiological standards. By introducing the latest available solutions, already at the planning stage, Poland has the chance to create an airport that the passengers will trust. The so-called greenfieldinvestment, planned from scratch, has a huge advantage over airports which have been developed decades ago when many epidemiological risks have not yet been accounted for.

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.

Planned airport and railway investments will provide a positive boost to the economy and the labor market, both during and after construction. The new railway lines will connect most of the regions of Poland with CPK and Warsaw in a time no longer than 2.5 hours. The investment project will also include the connection of previously unconnected cities to the railway network (i.e. Grójec, Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Łomża, Kolno, Tomaszów Lubelski), it will also entail increased investment attractiveness of the towns which will gain direct long-distance connections (for example: Busko-Zdrój, Grudziądz, Kłodzko, Nysa, Ostrołęka Płock, Sanok, Zamość).

The CPK investment is a huge boost for the labor market. For comparison: a new passenger terminal of Changi East is planned to be constructed in Singapore. The aerodrome estimates that 20 thousand people will be employed in the construction works during the peak period. In the case of a new airport in Istanbul opened last year, the number of employees at the construction site amounted to 35 thousand.

Global political and economic crises happened before and most of them have been the cause of a sudden decline in air travel and had a negative impact on the aviation sector in the short term, for example following the attacks of 11 September, the SARS epidemic. In the long term, the traffic was restored, ultimately to increase further at a later time.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) indicates that the 2nd quarter of 2020 will be a time of the largest decreases in passenger aviation. According to IATA, a gradual upwards trend should start afterwards. We do not know how long this period of market restoration will last as of yet, but there is no doubt that, “at the end of the day”, passengers will resume air travel.

The main objective of the SLS was to designate rail and road investment corridors – several kilometers wide – which will be the basis for further study and design works.  The CPK planners proposed several variants for new transport routes inside the corridors. For the time being, they are indicative and are not binding.

The proposals and comments concern, to the greatest extent, a dozen or so locations, including Kraków, Konstantynów Łódzki, Wieliszew, Grójec and Bolimów in the Mazovian region, Miedziana Góra near Kielce, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Olkusz andMikołówin Silesian Voivodeship and Jelcz-Laskowice in Lower Silesia. Most of them include proposals to change the route of the proposed variants, e.g. to route railway lines through undeveloped areas (fields, forests, meadows) or, on the contrary, to limit interference in such areas due to the protection of green areas.

Some proposals also called for even better service than that planned for some towns, either by building new railway lines or by integrating existing lines into the CPK lines. Such comments were received by CPK Poland e.g. from Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Elbląg, Skarżysko-Kamienna and Starachowice.

Some of the comments also related to the corridors and variants of the planned Warsaw Agglomeration Ringroad (OAW). They will be submitted by the CPK for analysis to the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways, with which on March 11 this year CPK concluded a cooperation agreement for planning, design and construction of road investments related to the CPK.

CPK Poland is currently analyzing the comments gathered in the SLS consultations. They will be summarized in a report, which is expected to be published by the end ofJune this year. The final date will depend on the number and complexity of the comments submitted in hard copy (most of them were received during the last days of consultations and those sent by post are still being received).

In the coming months, CPK plans to start another phase of the consultations: meetings will be organized successively in the communes which are located on the routes of the variants.

The CPK Rail Program will mean a sharp reduction of travel times for passengers. For example, the journey by train from Warsaw to CPK Airport will take 15 minutes and from Łódź – less than 30 minutes. We will get to Warsaw from Wrocław and Poznań within less than 2 hours, and the travel time between Kraków and Katowice will be reduced to only 35 minutes.Jastrzębie-Zdrój and Łomża, which cannot be accessed by train today, will also be connected, among other towns to the railway network.

Each of the 12 planned lines, of which 10 basic so-called spokes connect individual regions of the country with the CPK and Warsaw, will consist of new track sections and renovated or modernized parts of the existing infrastructure. The construction will be the responsibility of CPK and the modernization will be the responsibility of PKP Polish State Railways.

• The CPK is not only a major change in the aviation market, but also a real revolution in railway travels across Poland. Thanks to the CPK Railway Program we are fighting against the traffic exclusionof the Polish people – said the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki at the Railway Development Congress in the National Stadium in Warsaw. – In April last year, during the press conference at the Łódź Fabryczna station, we presented the assumptions of the CPK Railway Program and the amendment to the regulation containing the list of railway lines of national importance, adopted by the government. Today we present to the Polish people the first results of design works – he added.

Within each of the railway line corridors presented today,variants of the route of a given line are presented. – They are indicative. The final route for each of them will depend, among others, on the results of the public consultations, environmental surveys and detailed technical conditions – explained Marcin Horała, the Government Plenipotentiary for CPK.

The new CPK planning study can be consulted from now on at the website www.cpk.pl. The consultation form will be made available in that place at the beginning of February to enable all interested parties to submit their proposals to the document prepared. 

The CPK airport and railway investments are part of the government Strategy for Responsible Development. In addition, in April last year, the government adopted a regulation under which new track sections along which trains will get to the CPK and Warsaw were included in the list of railway lines of national importance.

According to the assumptions of the investments under preparation, the train journey from thecapital to the new CPK Airport will take 15 minutes and from Łódź – less than 30 minutes. We will get to Warsaw from Wrocław and Poznań within lessthan 2 hours, and e.g. the travel time between Kraków and Katowice will be reduced to only 35 minutes.

• Among the planned CPK investment, there is a new hub airport for Poland and Central and Eastern Europe and a network of new railway lines (including high-speed rail sections) which are to connect Warsaw and the CPK with most of the largest towns of Poland within 2-2.5 hours – reminded Piotr Malepszak, Member the Management Board of CPK, responsible for the railway part.

Each of the 10 “spokes” leading to the CPK will consist of new track sections and renovated or modernized parts of the existing infrastructure. The construction will be the responsibility of CPK and the modernization will be the responsibility of PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe.

Integration with rail transport is one of the conditions for the proper functioning of the CPK. As it results from the arrangements between CPK and PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe and the Ministry of Infrastructure, as part of the CPK program, approx. 1.6 thousand km of new lines will be constructed. Of this, 140 km as the so-called “zero stage”, which should be ready before the CPK becomes operational.

As part of the zerostage, a new railway line will be constructed: Warsaw-CPK-Łódź Fabryczna, i.e. the first section of the High Speed Train project suspended in 2012 (the so-called “Y”). In the area of Baranów a hub will be constructed with connectors between CPK and the existing lines being its parts:

• No. 1 and 4 (Warsaw – Grodzisk Maz. – Łódź with Central Trunk Line turn towards Katowice)
• No. 3 (Warsaw – Kutno – Poznań)

Ultimately, for the needs of the CPK program, also, among others, the “CMK Północ (North Central Trunk Line)” line will be constructed, i.e. the extension of the Central Trunk Line from the Żyrardów area to the CPK, and further in the direction of Płock, Włocławek, Grudziądz and Tricity.

The railway part of the CPK program, which is divided into stages to be implemented up to 2040, is a webbing of new lines leading from 10 directions to CPK and Warsaw. As a result of its construction, the train ride to the central airport is to take no longer than 2 hours. The network range will encompass the biggest cities in Poland (except for Szczecin, as the distance allows to get to the city comfortably by rail within 3 hours 15 minutes). Convenient access to the CPK will also cover the border areas of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Oblast.

Each “spoke” shall consist of new sections of the network and of renovated or modernized parts of the existing infrastructure. For the purposes of construction of this railway system, investment tasks were 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 manager in Poland and is responsible for modernization of the existing lines.

In the case of newly constructed high speed lines – firstly between Warsaw and Łódź, then, i.a., to Wrocław and Poznań – the assumed initial standard will be their adaptation to the speed of 250 km/h, with technical parameters enabling possible further increase of these speeds.

The main elements of the CPK program rail investments are as follows, broken down into “spokes”:

Spoke No. 1 (Pomerania, Kuyavia)

• CK– Płock – Włocławek – Grudziądz – Tczew –Tricity (Central Trunk Line North) – Lębork – Słupsk
• Włocławek – Toruń – Bydgoszcz – Piła – Szczecinek – Białogard – Kołobrzeg

Spoke No. 2 (Warmia)

• CPK – Warsaw – Nasielsk – Ciechanów – Działdowo – Olsztyn

Spoke No. 3 (Podlaskie, Masuria)

• CPK – Warsaw – Zielonka – Tłuszcz – Czyżew – Białystok – Kuźnica
• Białystok – Ełk – Suwałki – Trakiszki
• Tłuszcz – Ostrołęka – Łomża – Pisz – Orzysz – Giżycko

Spoke No. 4 (Siedlce, Biała Podlaska, Terespol)

• CPK – Warsaw – Siedlce – Łuków – Biała Podlaska – Terespol

Spoke No. 5 (Lubelskie)

• CPK – Warsaw – Otwock – Lublin – Trawniki – Chełm
• Trawniki – Krasnystaw –– Zamość – Tomaszów Lubelski – Bełżec

Spoke No. 6 (Radom, Podkarpackie)

• CPK – Grójec – Warka – Radom – Iłża – Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski – Stalowa Wola – Łętownia – Rzeszów – Sanok
• Rzeszów – Jasło – Krosno

Spoke No. 7 (Kielce and Tarnów)

• CPK – CMK – Węzeł Małopolsko-Śląski (WMŚ – Lesser Poland-Silesia Hub) – Kraków – Podłęże – Nowy Sącz/Chabówka
• WMŚ– Czechowicz-Dziedzice – Jastrzębie Zdrój
• WMŚ – Katowice
• Central Trunk Line – Opoczno – Końskie –Kielce – Busko Zdrój – Tarnów – Nowy Sącz – Muszyna

Spoke No. 8 (Częstochowa, Opolszczyzna)

• CPK – Skierniewice – Częstochowa – Opole – Nysa – Kłodzko

Spoke No. 9 (Wielkopolskie, Lubuskie, Zachodniopomorskie)

• CPK – Łódź – Sieradz – Wieruszów – Wrocław – Świdnica – Wałbrzych – Lubawka
• Sieradz – Kalisz – Poznań – Szczecin – Szczecin Goleniów
• Kalisz – Ostrów Wlkp. – Leszno – Głogów – Zielona Góra
• Poznań – Zbąszynek – Gorzów Wielkopolski

Spoke No. 10 (Kutno, Konin, Poznań)

• CPK – Warsaw – Sochaczew – Kutno – Konin – Swarzędz – Poznań

Currently, the total length of railway lines in Poland is 19 thousand km, whereas from the beginning of the 1990s more than 5 thousand km of the lines have been dismantled. New investments are needed because rail routes have not been built in Poland on large scale since the 1980s when the Metallurgy-Sulfur Line and previously the Central Trunk Line were completed. In the last 30 years, in Poland only 50 km of new railway tracks were built (37 km of Pomeranian Metropolitan Rail and several connection lines to airports, including to Warsaw Chopin and Lublin airports).

In our country there are more than 100 cities with more than 10 thousand inhabitants without access to rail connections. For comparison: there is one such city in the Czech Republic, there are eight in Slovakia, six in Hungary and five in Austria. The current shape of the Polish railway network still bears traces of partition, which can be seen, among others, in the system of lines and lower track density in the eastern Poland.

Thanks to the implementation of the CPK program, the railway map of Poland will feature the cities which cannot reached by train today, e.g. Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Tomaszów Lubelski, Końskie, Busko-Zdrój, Dąbrowa Tarnowska and Węgorzewo. High-speed lines and “spokes” leading to CPK will make the network more coherent and enable its usage in full capacity. As announced by the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Mikołaj Wild, a multi-annual CPK program is to be prepared in spring, which will specify what specific airport, rail and road investments will be carried out as part of CPK operation and what financing will be needed for this purpose.