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 theVistula river. The largest seaports are thePort of Gdańsk, thePort of Gdynia and thePort of Szczecin. Air travel is generally used for international travel, with many flights originating atWarsaw Chopin Airport. Railways connect all of Poland's major cities and the state-ownedPolish 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 Polishvoivodeships have their own regional rail service providers.
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 byPKP 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 onlyrapid transit system: theWarsaw Metro.
The only high-speed rail line (though by most definitions, realhigh-speed rail only includes speeds over 200 km/h) in central-eastern Europe is theCentral Rail Line (Poland),Centralna Magistrala Kolejowa (CMK). It has a length of 223 km (139 mi), and was built in 1971–1977; it linksWarsaw withKraków andKatowice. Most trains on the CMK operate at speeds up to 160 km/h (99 mph), but since December 2014 newAlstomPendolino ED250 trains operate on a 90 km section of the CMK at 200 km/h (124 mph), and improvements under way should raise the authorized speed to 200 km/h (124 mph) on most of the line. In test runs on the CMK in November 2013 a newPendolino ED250 train set a new Polish speed record of 293 km/h (182 mph).[2]
Other high-speed lines:
ProjectsThe 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 inŁódź andKalisz.,[6] but the project was cancelled in November 2011 due to its high cost.[7]
ThePKP Group is the fourth largest railway throughout Europe. Trains are run by its different subsidiaries.
The following companies operate in Poland:
There are hundreds of kilometres of600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in),750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in),785 mm (2 ft 6+29⁄32 in), and1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) narrow-gauge lines inPoland.These railways are mostly in decline, some survive as amuseum ortourist railways.
Except forLinia Hutnicza Szerokotorowa, and a few very short stretches nearborder crossings, Poland uses thestandard gauge for its railways. Therefore,Linia Hutnicza Szerokotorowa (known by its acronymLHS,English:Broad-gauge steelworks line) inSławków is the longestbroad-gaugerailway line in Poland. The line runs on a single track for almost 400 km (250 mi) from the Polish-Ukrainian border, crossing it just east ofHrubieszów. It is the westernmost broad-gauge railway line in Europe that is connected to the broad-gauge rail system of the countries of the formerSoviet Union.
Total: 23,420 km (14,550 mi)
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.
Polish public roads are grouped into categories related toadministrative division. Poland has 424,563 km (263,810 mi) of public roads, of which 120,563 km (74,910 mi) are unsurfaced (2021):[8]
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 ofEuropean Union funds for infrastructure projects.[9]
Polish motorways and expressways are part of national roads network. As of December 2021, there are 1,721 kilometres (1,070 mi) ofmotorways (autostrady, singular -autostrada) and 2,790 km (1,730 mi) ofexpressways (drogi ekspresowe, singular -droga ekspresowa).[10]
Motorways in Poland, 1,721 km (1,070 mi) (2021):
A1 |A2 |A4 |A6 |A8 |A18
Expressways in Poland, 2,790 km (1,730 mi) (2021):
S1 |S2 |S3 |S5 |S6 |S7 |S8 |S10 |S11 |S12 |S14 |S16 |S17 |S19 |S22 |S51 |S52 |S61 |S74 |S79 |S86
The most important airport in Poland isWarsaw 'Frederic Chopin' International Airport. Warsaw's airport is the main international hub forLOT Polish Airlines.
In addition to Warsaw Chopin,Wrocław,Gdańsk,Katowice,Kraków andPoznań all have international airports.
In preparation for theEuro 2012 football championships jointly hosted by Poland andUkraine, 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 bothWrocław Airport andLech Wałęsa Airport in Gdańsk.
There are a total of 8 Polish airline companies currently operating, with the most successful airline beingLOT Polish Airlines, theflag carrier of Poland. It is also the only regularly scheduled airline in Poland.
6 of the airlines are chartered airlines, includingBuzz,Enter Air,LOT Charters,Skytaxi,SprintAir, andSmartwings Poland.SprintAir Cargo is also the main cargo airline in Poland.
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.
List of airports in PolandThe following are the largest airports in Poland (In descending order for 2013):
Domestic:
Airports with paved runways:Total: 84 (2005)
Airports – with unpaved runways:Total: 39 (2005)
Heliports: 2 (2005)
The country's most important waterway is the riverVistula. The largest seaports are thePort of Szczecin andPort of Gdańsk.
Marine transport in Poland has two main sub-groups, riverine and seaborne. On theBaltic 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 thero-ro ferries ofUnity Line,Polferries andStena Line which operate thePoland –Scandinavia passenger lines.
Riverine services operate on almost all major Polish rivers and canals (such as theDanube–Oder andElbląg canals) as well as on domestic coastal routes.
Poland has 3,997 km (2,480 mi) of navigable rivers and canals (as of 2009).
(Polferries: Gdańsk —Nynäshamn /Ystad) (Stena Line: Gdynia —Karlskrona /Gothenburg andFinnlines: Gdynia —Helsinki /Rostock) (Polferries: Świnoujście —Copenhagen /Ystad /Rønne andUnity Line: Świnoujście —Ystad /Trelleborg)Total: 57 ships (1,000 GT or over) totaling 1,120,165 GT/1,799,569 tonnesdeadweight (DWT)
Ships by type:bulk 50, cargo 2, chemical tanker 2, roll-on/roll-off 1, short-sea passenger 2(1999 est.)
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 companyPKS. 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:
While they often use the same bus stops, they tend to use different stations.
Bigger cities run densetram networks, which are the primary mean of public transport. Currently, there are 15 systems serving over 30 cities includingBydgoszcz,Gdańsk,Katowice,Kraków,Łódź,Poznań,Szczecin,Warsaw andWrocław, with the total track length varying from 200 km (120 mi) (Silesian Interurbans) to less than 10 km (6 mi) (Tramways in Grudziądz). A new network has been constructed inOlsztyn in 2015. See thelist of town tramway systems in Poland
Since the 1990s, a number of cities attempts to upgrade certain parts of their networks to thelight rail standard (calledszybkie tramwaje, En.fast trams). The most notable investments arePoznań Fast Tram andKraków Fast Tram with the underground 1.5 km (0.9 mi)premetro section.[11]
Trolleybuses can be found in three cities:Gdynia (with some lines reachingSopot),Lublin andTychy.
The firstmetro line was opened inWarsaw in 1995.[12] Part of thesecond line was opened in 2015. This is part of the country's rail transport infrastructure. There is an ongoing debate whether a new metro orpremetro should be built inKraków. The current President of Kraków,Aleksander Miszalski, supports the idea and has declared that first works will commence in 2028.[13]
In major Polish cities such asWarsaw and theTricity area, Commuter (SKM) trains provide efficient connections between the city center and surrounding suburbs or satellite towns. In other cities like Łódź (served byŁKA) and Kraków (served bySKA), similar commuter rail services operate under different names but follow the same principles and rules.
(2006 est.)
