Poland is preparing to launch its most ambitious rail network expansion programme, perhaps the most significant since the post-war reconstructions. Two figures alone show the scale of the investment: 4,700 kilometres of new tracks will be built, with financial commitments likely to range between €140 billion and €150 billion. The plan, known as “Integrated rail network”, is a multi-year and therefore long-term programme, but the aim is to complete and open the first 1,000 kilometres of new railways by 2035.
But there is no shortage of surprises, and they are prompting debate, because a detailed reading of the documents shows that freight transport has effectively been excluded from the vast rail infrastructure plan. The programme focuses on the construction of 19 new main lines that will connect all the various Polish regions, and of the total 4,700 kilometres, 2,700 will consist of high-speed lines for passenger traffic.
According to available information, there are no specific indications for investment in and strengthening of freight services. Pursuing the goal of speeding up passenger transport at all costs may carry the risk of investing substantial resources to bring high-speed rail to sparsely populated areas merely to connect two locations of some interest point to point. Conversely, some of the country’s most industrialised areas would be left out of the new connections, perhaps because potential demand for fast passenger services is limited. There is, however, one consideration to be made: if passenger traffic is concentrated mainly on the new high-speed lines, the historic rail network will have more paths available for all other types of trains, including not only regional services but also freight trains, bringing an indirect but far from insignificant benefit.
The “Integrated rail network” plan, according to some operators, was drawn up without preliminary consultation with the freight transport sector and even without the involvement of the Polish regions concerned, making it, in a sense, a top-down plan. All this comes as Poland increasingly appears to be a rail crossroads towards Ukraine to the east and the Baltic Republics to the north. In particular, it is set to become the terminus of Rail Baltica, the new 950-kilometre standard-gauge European rail corridor that will connect Tallinn in Estonia with the Polish hub of Warsaw.
Almost against the trend of the limited interest in freight services that characterises Poland’s new investment plan, the national railway company PKP launched, at the beginning of 2025, the modernisation and double-tracking of the railway running from the Białystok hub, the largest city in north-eastern Poland, just over 40 kilometres as the crow flies from the border with Belarus, northwards to Ełk, around 70 kilometres from Lithuania. The rail corridor involved in the upgrade and redevelopment project is about 100 kilometres long. Investments of more than €1.4 billion are planned, co-financed by the European Union, as the section also forms part of the north-south international corridor included in the Rail Baltica project. North of Ełk lies the Kaunas hub, which provides the connection with Lithuania’s railways and therefore with Rail Baltica; for this reason, conversion to European standard gauge is under way.
Piermario Curti Sacchi
