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Transport in Poland

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Transport in Poland involves air, water, road and rail transportation. The country has a large network of municipal public transport, such as buses, trams and the metro. As a country located at the 'cross-roads' of Europe, Poland is a nation with a large and increasingly modern network of transport infrastructure.

The country's most important waterway is the Vistula river. The largest seaports are the Port of Gdańsk, the Port of Gdynia and the Port of Szczecin. Air travel is generally used for international travel, with many flights originating at Warsaw Chopin Airport. Railways connect all of Poland's major cities and the state-owned Polish State Railways (PKP) corporation, through its subsidiaries, runs a great number of domestic and international services of varying speed and comfort. In addition to this, five out of sixteen Polish voivodeships have their own regional rail service providers.

Rail transportEdit

File:Poland rail map.svg
Railways in Poland
File:Wrocław Dworzec Główny.jpg
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File:Polish Pendolino front 2.JPG
A PKP Intercity ED250 Pendolino at Wrocław Main Station.
File:Gdańsk Główny, Blick von Marienkirche.jpg
Gdańsk Main Station, one of Poland's most important railway terminals
File:Bwe loco change rzepin.jpg
A Polish locomotive takes over haulage duty from a Deutsche Bahn unit at Rzepin on a Berlin-Warsaw Express train

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:See also Poland is served by an extensive network of railways. In most cities the main railway station is located near a city centre and is well connected to the local transportation system. The infrastructure is operated by PKP Group. The rail network is very dense in western and northern Poland, while eastern part of the country is less developed. The capital city, Warsaw, has the country's only rapid transit system: the Warsaw Metro.

The only high-speed rail line (though by most definitions, real high-speed rail only includes speeds over 200 km/h) in central-eastern Europe is the Central Rail Line (Poland), Centralna Magistrala Kolejowa (CMK). It has a length of Template:Convert, and was built in 1971–1977; it links Warsaw with Kraków and Katowice. Most trains on the CMK operate at speeds up to Template:Convert, but since December 2014 new Alstom Pendolino ED250 trains operate on a 90 km section of the CMK at Template:Convert, and improvements under way should raise the authorized speed to Template:Convert on most of the line. In test runs on the CMK in November 2013 a new Pendolino ED250 train set a new Polish speed record of Template:Convert.<ref>'Bariera 300 km/h nie padła. Na koniec testów 293 km/h,' Rynek Kolejowy, 2013 11 24, http://www.rynek-kolejowy.pl/49466/bariera_300_km_h_nie_padla_na_koniec_testow_293_km_h.htm</ref>

Other high-speed lines:

Projects The Warsaw–Łódź line is being upgraded to allow speed up to 160 km/h (in order to bind together the Warsaw–Łódź agglomeration).

Plans were made to construct a new high-speed line (350 km/h) from Warsaw to Poznań and Wrocław with forks in Łódź and Kalisz.,<ref>In brief: High Speed Rail will invade Poland by 2020 Template:Webarchive, Transport Expertise Association, Matthieu Desiderio, 11 June 2008.</ref> but the project was cancelled in November 2011 due to its high cost.<ref>'Polish High Sped Rail Project Cancelled,' Railway Gazette International, 8 December 2011, http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/infrastructure/single-view/view/polish-high-speed-rail-project-cancelled.html</ref>

The PKP Group is the fourth largest railway throughout Europe. Trains are run by its different subsidiaries.

Passenger transport operatorsEdit

The following companies operate in Poland:

Narrow-gauge railwaysEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} There are hundreds of kilometres of Template:RailGauge, Template:RailGauge, Template:RailGauge, and Template:RailGauge narrow-gauge lines in Poland. These railways are mostly in decline, some survive as a museum or tourist railways.

Freight transport marketEdit

Broad-gauge railwaysEdit

File:Mapa LHS.png
LHS links southern Poland with broad-gauge railways in Ukraine and other eastern countries

Except for Linia Hutnicza Szerokotorowa, and a few very short stretches near border crossings, Poland uses the standard gauge for its railways. Therefore, Linia Hutnicza Szerokotorowa (known by its acronym LHS, English: Broad-gauge steelworks line) in Sławków is the longest broad-gauge railway line in Poland. The line runs on a single track for almost Template:Convert from the Polish-Ukrainian border, crossing it just east of Hrubieszów. It is the westernmost broad-gauge railway line in Europe that is connected to the broad-gauge rail system of the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Rail systemEdit

Total: Template:Convert

As of December 2002 narrow-gauge railways were no longer owned or operated by PKP. They were transferred to regional authorities or became independent companies.

Rail links with adjacent countriesEdit

Road transportEdit

Template:See also

File:DocelowyUkladDrog.svg
Map of planned motorway and expressway network in Poland.
File:PL A2 Poznan Komorniki.JPG
A2 near Poznań, opened in 2003
File:Ruch tirow 2015.svg
Semi-trailer truck average daily traffic in 2015

Polish public roads are grouped into categories related to administrative division. Poland has Template:Convert of public roads, of which Template:Convert are unsurfaced (2021):<ref name="gus_transport">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In recent years, the network has been improving and government spending on road construction recently saw a huge increase, due to rapid development of the country and the inflow of European Union funds for infrastructure projects.<ref name="euromonitor">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Motorways and expresswaysEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Polish motorways and expressways are part of national roads network. As of December 2021, there are Template:Convert of motorways (autostrady, singular - autostrada) and Template:Convert of expressways (drogi ekspresowe, singular - droga ekspresowa).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:Znak D9.svg Motorways in Poland, Template:Convert (2021):
A1 | A2 | A4 | A6 | A8 | A18

File:PL road sign D-7.svg Expressways in Poland, Template:Convert (2021):
S1 | S2 | S3 | S5 | S6 | S7 | S8 | S10 | S11 | S12 | S14 | S16 | S17 | S19 | S22 | S51 | S52 | S61 | S74 | S79 | S86

Air transportEdit

File:Poland airports 2016.svg
Location of main airports in Poland, with number of passengers served in 2016
File:Warsaw Airport.jpg
Terminal 2 of the Warsaw Chopin Airport
File:Terminal T2 we Wrocławiu - landside.jpg
Wrocław Airport - interior of the terminal T2
File:Gdansk-Lotnisko-Terminal2 5.JPG
New terminal at Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The most important airport in Poland is Warsaw 'Frederic Chopin' International Airport. Warsaw's airport is the main international hub for LOT Polish Airlines.

In addition to Warsaw Chopin, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków and Poznań all have international airports.

In preparation for the Euro 2012 football championships jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine, a number of airports around the country were renovated and redeveloped. This included the building of new terminals with an increased number of jetways and stands at both Wrocław Airport and Lech Wałęsa Airport in Gdańsk.

AirportsEdit

The Polish airline market was until 2004 a closed market, with bilateral agreements between countries served from the national hub – Warsaw. The regional airports were mostly serving as spokes, and were controlled by PPL, the state-owned airport authority. However, in the 1990s it was decided to deregulate the airport market and abolish the dominant position of PPL. Nearly all local airports (apart from Zielona Góra airport) became separate companies, with local governments involved in their management, which led to the partial decentralisation. Soon after opening of Polish sky for competition, flights "avoiding" the Warsaw hub became more common.

There are twelve passenger airports in operation, and there is also an airport Heringsdorf in German village Garz, 7 kilometers from Polish seaside spa Świnoujście.

International airportsEdit

List of airports in Poland The following are the largest airports in Poland (In descending order for 2013):

Domestic:

Airports with paved runways: Total: 84 (2005)

  • over 3,047 m: 4
  • 2,438 to 3,047 m: 29
  • 1,524 to 2,437 m: 41
  • 914 to 1,523 m: 7
  • under 914 m: 3

Airports – with unpaved runways: Total: 39 (2005)

  • 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  • 1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  • 914 to 1,523 m: 13
  • under 914 m: 21

Heliports: 2 (2005)

Water transportEdit

File:MF Skania 1.jpg
Ferries of Polish company Unity Line in the city of Szczecin
File:Gdynia kamienna marina.jpg
Gdynia's main municipal marina

The country's most important waterway is the river Vistula. The largest seaports are the Port of Szczecin and Port of Gdańsk.

Marine transport in Poland has two main sub-groups, riverine and seaborne. On the Baltic Sea coast, a number of large seaports exist to serve the international freight and passenger trade; these are typically deep water ports and are able to serve very large ships, including the ro-ro ferries of Unity Line, Polferries and Stena Line which operate the Poland – Scandinavia passenger lines.

Riverine services operate on almost all major Polish rivers and canals (such as the Danube–Oder and Elbląg canals) as well as on domestic coastal routes.

WaterwaysEdit

Poland has Template:Convert of navigable rivers and canals (as of 2009).

Ports and harborsEdit

Merchant marineEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Total: 57 ships (1,000 GT or over) totaling 1,120,165 GT/Template:DWT

Ships by type: bulk 50, cargo 2, chemical tanker 2, roll-on/roll-off 1, short-sea passenger 2 (1999 est.)

Municipal transportEdit

File:Solaris Urbino 10 1006.jpg
City bus in Warsaw, manufactured by Polish company Solaris

BusEdit

File:PL road sign D-15.svg

Most Polish towns and cities have well-developed municipal bus services. Typically, a city possesses its own local bus service, however, in some cases they have private competitors operating on certain lines upon the agreement with local authorities.

Until the 1990s, interurban connections were operated by a single, state-owned company PKS. Since then, it has been broken into a number of independent national and municipal enterprises. In addition, several private operators emerged. There are two classes of service distinguished by vehicle length:

  • autobus — longer vehicles (12.0 m and more),
  • bus — shorter vehicles with smaller capacity, very popular on local connections, run by individual persons and smaller companies.

While they often use the same bus stops, they tend to use different stations.

TramEdit

File:PL road sign D-17.svg
File:Bombardier NGT6 -2027.jpeg
Bombardier tram in Kraków

Bigger cities run dense tram networks, which are the primary mean of public transport. Currently, there are 15 systems serving over 30 cities including Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin, Warsaw and Wrocław, with the total track length varying from Template:Convert (Silesian Interurbans) to less than Template:Convert (Tramways in Grudziądz). A new network has been constructed in Olsztyn in 2015. See the list of town tramway systems in Poland

Since the 1990s, a number of cities attempts to upgrade certain parts of their networks to the light rail standard (called szybkie tramwaje, En. fast trams). The most notable investments are Poznań Fast Tram and Kraków Fast Tram with the underground Template:Convert premetro section.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

TrolleybusEdit

File:PL road sign D-16.svg Trolleybuses can be found in three cities: Gdynia (with some lines reaching Sopot), Lublin and Tychy.

Rapid transitEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Warsaw Metro logo.svg

The first metro line was opened in Warsaw in 1995.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Part of the second line was opened in 2015. This is part of the country's rail transport infrastructure. There is an ongoing debate whether a new metro or premetro should be built in Kraków. The current President of Kraków, Aleksander Miszalski, supports the idea and has declared that first works will commence in 2028.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Warsaw 07-13 img37 Plac Wilsona metro.jpg

    Plac Wilsona Station

  • A21 Warsaw Metro.jpg

    Stare Bielany station

  • C10 Rondo ONZ - peron, Ogłoszenie wyników plebiscytu na głos linii M2, 2014-10-29.jpg

    Rondo ONZ Station and the Siemens Inspiro stock train

Commuter trainsEdit

File:PL-SKMWA logo.svg
File:45WEa-002A SKM, Warszawa Gdańska.jpg
A Warsaw SKM train at Warszawa Gdańska

In major Polish cities such as Warsaw and the Tricity area, Commuter (SKM) trains provide efficient connections between the city center and surrounding suburbs or satellite towns. In other cities like Łódź (served by ŁKA) and Kraków (served by SKA), similar commuter rail services operate under different names but follow the same principles and rules.

PipelinesEdit

(2006 est.)

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Poland topics Template:Transportation in Europe

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