CPK will apply for billions of EU subsidies for the railway line and tunnel

In the coming year, CPK plans to apply to the European Commission for billions of dollars in subsidies for the construction of individual sections of the railway line between Warsaw and Łódź and the drilling of a long-distance tunnel in Łódź – the company reported in a press release. CPK hopes to open new financing opportunities from the EU in the 2028-2034 period.

The CPK special purpose vehicle announced on Wednesday that the section of the “Y” railway line, which will connect Warsaw, the CPK Airport and Łódź by 2032, and also Poznań and Wrocław by 2035, is the most advanced section of the High-Speed ​​Railway implemented by the Central Communication Port.

“So far, for the entire +Y+, the company has received approximately PLN 500 million of EU support for study and design work, including PLN 280 million for the Warsaw – Łódź section. However, this is only the beginning. In the coming year, CPK plans to apply to the European Commission for billions of dollars in subsidies for the construction of individual sections between Warsaw and Łódź and drilling a long-distance tunnel in Łódź,” it was reported.

Marcin Michalski, CPK management board member responsible for finance, quoted in the information, emphasized that the EU CEF instrument is currently the only source from which the company can obtain EU funds for railway investments.

“Meanwhile, we also want to use, for example, the FEnIKS Program, which is the basic source of financing railway investments in Poland from EU funds. Therefore, in cooperation with institutions responsible for the implementation of EU funds, we are taking actions aimed at opening new financing opportunities in the 2028-2034 perspective,” said Michalski.

In turn, the president of CPK, Filip Czernicki, in the Multiannual CPK Program for 2024-2032 adopted by the Council of Ministers, EU funds are an extremely important element.

“Thanks to these subsidies that we are counting on, it will be possible for CPK to continue building railways in the 21st century standard in Poland,” Czernicki noted.

As part of the Warsaw-Łódź HSR project, CPK is planning a total of eight tender procedures: six for basic construction works and two for traffic control (SRK), telecommunications and traction network. Additionally, later this year, as part of the preparatory work, a tender for archaeological works for the entire section of “Y” between Warsaw and Łódź is to be announced.

According to the schedule, the company first plans to announce tenders for construction works for two fragments of the line – from Warszawa Zachodnia to Konotopa (18 km long) and from Konotopa to CPK along with the Parzniew – Kotowice connector (13 km). The next ones, already in 2026, will be four tenders for construction works on the section from the border with the CPK junction project to Łódź.

Thanks to the construction of the Warsaw-Łódź HSR line, the travel time between Warsaw and Łódź will be shortened to approximately 40 minutes (today it is approximately 70 minutes). The journey from Warsaw to the CPK airport will take less than 20 minutes. After the entire “Y” is built, the journey from Poznań to Warsaw will take less than 1 hour. 40 minutes (instead of currently approx. 2 hours 20 minutes) and the same time from Warsaw to Wrocław, i.e. less than half of what it is now.

The CPK airport is to be launched at the end of 2032 – simultaneously with the HSR section between Warsaw and Łódź. HSR sections from Łódź through Sieradz to Wrocław and Poznań should be allowed for use by the end of 2035 (PAP Biznes)

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