Polish Railways confirms track overhaul

Photo: sxc

Remigiusz Paszkiewicz, CEO of PKP-PLK (the company responsible for maintenance of tracks) has said that the majority of the work will take place from 2014-2015.

“We want to spend 9 billion zloty [2.15 billion euro] next year on this investment,” he said, acknowledging that disruptions to passengers' journeys will be unavoidable.

“Most of the difficulties will be next year, as 3000 closures of tracks is something that we've never done before,” he said.

“But it's like the renovation of a house, you have to do it so as to keep going,” he added.

PKP-PLK has received part of its funding costs for the overhaul via loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

A loan of 235 million euro was recently agreed for a section between Warsaw and Radom. Last year, the EIB loaned 4.4 billion euro to Poland, 15 percent of which was earmarked for rail and urban transport projects.

Meanwhile, the PKP Group continues its attempt to balance its books. In November 2012, debts were estimated at 4.3 billion zloty (1 billion euro).

It has since sold its cable-car wing Polish Cable Lines (PKL), and late last month, an IPO was made on a 50 percent stake in freight firm PKP Cargo. (nh)

Source: PAP