THE European Union (EU) has allocated €64m from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to support the construction of a new 140km high-speed line between Warsaw and Łódź via a new international airport as part of the project to build a network of high-speed lines centred on the airport led by Solidarity Transport Hub (CPK).
The funding will support work to deliver full project documentation, including for the construction project, and the documents needed to obtain water permits and alignment decisions for the new railway. The agreement was signed by representatives of Poland’s Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, the Centre for EU Transport Projects, and CPK.
Advanced design work is underway on the Warsaw - CPK - Łódź line. A consortium of Metroprojekt and Sud Architekt Polska has been preparing documentation for the Warsaw - CPK section since November 2022. Egis Poland, Egis Rail and Jaf-Geotechnika is carrying out design of the CPK - Łódź section. Design is scheduled for completion by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
The Warsaw - Łódź line will connect with the line to Poznan and Wroclaw, and is part of the EU’s TEN-T North Sea - Baltic Sea corridor. Funding was secured through the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (Cinea) under the second call for the second iteration of CEF. It is the first agreement between Cinea and CPK under the 2021-2027 programme.
“The European Commission has once again recognised the strategic importance of CPK’s rail projects,” says Mr Marcin Horała, deputy minister of funds and regional policy and government plenipotentiary for CPK. “The planned HSR line will enable the integration of the CPK airport into the high-speed rail network, and is therefore a priority investment for us.”
