New line: Warsaw – STH – Łódź. The Company indicated the contractor of the preparatory works
The Solidarity Transport Hub company selected the most advantageous tender for preparatory works for the Warszawa Zachodnia (Warsaw West) – STH – Łódź section. It is 140 km of new railway tracks, which will form the first element of the high-speed rail system in Poland. It allows passengers to travel from Warsaw to Łódź in 45 minutes, i.e. almost twice as fast as currently.
Almost 140 kmWarsaw – STH – Łódź Niciarniana section is a key element of the so-called spoke No. 9. The new railway tracks will enable travel from Warsaw to the STH in 15 minutes and to Łódź in 45 minutes (currently it takes 1 hour and 20 minutes). Passengers will reach the STH from Łódź by train within 30 minutes. This line will enable the inclusion of the “Solidarity” Airport in the high-speed rail system in Poland, and will continue towards Wrocław and the border with the Czech Republic as part of subsequent stages (ultimately a railway branch will be created towards Poznań).
The subject of the contract is the so-called STEŚ, i.e. the feasibility study for the planned new railway line: Warsaw – STH – Łódź (without the section within the STH node, to which another of the currently ongoing nine STH rail tendering procedures applies).
The tender of the IDOM, Multiconsult, Transprojekt Gdański and Arcadis companies’ consortium was considered the most advantageous – it is these companies that will jointly prepare the STEŚ for the first high-speed rail line and the successful consortium submitted a tender for the amount of netPLN 24.7 million. Other tenders were submitted by the following consortia: Egis and Jaf-Geotechnika (net PLN 29.5 million) and Voessing Poland and the Railway Research Institute (net PLN 30.9 million).
The selection was determined by the price (in 50%) and the staff experience (in the remaining 50%).
We have completed another important stage. Acting jointly with the selected contractor, we will select the optimum route for the first line included in the STH programme. The line is pivotal from the point of view of operation of the Solidarity Airport, and at the same time it is one of the most important elements of the new public transport network. We will start as soon as possible. The agreement shall be signed immediately after completion of procedures necessary to ensure transparency of operation.
In accordance with the public procurement law, the last formalities must be completed before the procedure is concluded. Appeals which may affect the extension of the procedure may be lodged in the procedure. It will be concluded by signing an agreement with the contractor which will commence the performance of the commissioned services.
The contractor selected in the tendering procedure will have approx. 10 months for the preparation of the STEŚ (the performance and settlement of the entire agreement may take five months longer, as the subject of the contract also includes geological documentation and maps for design purposes).
As part of the STEŚ, the contractor shall deliver to the STH company, among others, traffic forecasts as well as analyses – e.g. operation and maintenance, technical, environmental and multi-criteria analyses – and shall prepare the soil survey report and maps for design purposes. The purpose the STEŚ is to prepare specialised documentation for the railway line for design purposes, including indication of its recommended route.
At the 140 km Warsaw – STH – Łódź section, trains are to speed up to a maximum of 250 km/h. At the same time, design parameters (e.g. curvature radii) will enable future speed increase to 350 km/h, if necessary. For the purposes of the high-speed system, STH assumes the use of 25 kV AC power supply.
The new Warszawa – Łódź line as an element of spokeNo. 9 will be connected with the existing routes:
- line No. 3 between the Ożarów Mazowiecki and Błonie stations,
- line No. 11 between the Bełchów and Łowicz Główny stations,
- lines No. 17, 458 and 541 (through the eastern head of the Łódź Widzew station).
According to the programme, the first construction works are to start in 2023. STH assumes that the section of the line connecting Łódź through the STH with Warsaw will be handed over for operation before the end of 2027.
The next stage of preparatory works – after completion of the STEŚ – will be preparation of the design documentation, i.e., among others, the conceptual design, materials for the environmental decision and the building permit design. The STH company is at the stage of preliminary market consultations prior to the announcement of the tendering procedure for the framework agreement for preparation of the design documentation for 30 investment tasks of STH.
The STH Railway Programme assumes that almost 1,800 km of new lines will be constructed by the end of 2034. These investments consist of a total of 12 railway routes, including 10 “spokes” leading from various regions of Poland to Warsaw and the STH.
