PKP PLK is halfway conducting works related to the modernisation of the Częstochowa-Fosowskie railway line. Renovated tracks will enable passengers to travel from Wroclaw to Warsaw faster than so far. Works are to be completed at the end of 2014/beginning of 2015. PKP is planning to launch an express connection between the capital and Wroclaw. The drawback is the fact that trains shall travel along a circuitous route via Opole and Częstochowa and not straight via Łódź. - The revitalisation of the Częstochowa-Fosowskie route involves works covering a total of 98 kilometres of tracks. As a result the route from Wroclaw to Warsaw will be shortened, announce representatives of PKP PLK.Travel from one of those cities to another may be actually shortened and last 3 hours and 45 minutes. - The reconstruction of the route will enable us to re-establish the speed of 120 km/h for passenger trains and 70 km/h for freight trains, says Mirosław Siemieniec from PKP PLK. This result is much better than those obtained so far, because at present it takes one approximately 6 hours to get to Warsaw. However, according to councillors from Obywatelski Dolny Śląsk (Civil Lower Silesia Association), who have striven for the overhauls of the shorter route to Warsaw, via Łódź, this option is still hardly attractive. - Of course, we are glad that travel to Warsaw will be shorter and it is some improvement. But it is a makeshift and temporary solution and hardly attractive as compared to travelling by car, says Patryk Wild from ODŚ. The councillor from the regional parliament of the Lower Silesian Province emphasises that there are 302 kilometres from the Wroclaw Main Railway Station to the Warsaw Central Railway Station as the crow flies while the route via Opole is over 430 kilometres long. - To compete with coaches and cars, the trains need to get to Warsaw in about 2 hours and 30 minutes, up to 3 hours at most and it is only the straight route which makes it possible, enumerates Patryk Wild. Especially that subsequent sections of the S8 express road are under construction and after all the road investments along the Wroclaw-Warsaw route have been completed, cars will even be faster. Therefore ODŚ councillors, backed up by senator Jarosław Obremski from Wroclaw, do not cease to strive for investment in the route from Wroclaw to Warsaw via Łódź. - On the 5th of December, right after the minister of transport was replaced, Senator Obremski filed a relevant statement with the new minister. Later we filed another statement towards the end of January requesting the reconsideration of the construction of a fast connection from Wroclaw to Warsaw via Łódź, says Wojciech Partyka, manager of the office of Senator Obremski. Yet there is a light literally at the end of the tunnel as an underground railway station Łódź Fabryczna is being constructed and an investment in a cross-city tunnel in Łódź was entered in the project of the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment 2014-2020. The commissioning of the first stage (head) is planned for 2015. - That’s 1/4 of a success; a full success requires three similar investments more: the construction of 49 kilometres of tracks connecting Wieruszów and Sieradz, electrification of 44 kilometres along the Oleśnica-Kępno route and the establishment of the line speed of 200 km/h at the remaining part of the Wroclaw-Łódź line, enumerates Wojciech Partyka. Lobbyists do even have a ready expert’s opinion concerning the revitalisation of the Wieruszów-Sieradz line. Now we only need to wait for positive decisions of Minister Elżbieta Bieńkowska.
Janusz Krzeszowski
