Two TEN-T corridors to pass through Poland

EU’s revised TEN-T plan puts two corridors through Poland. Two transport corridors forming part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) are to pass through Poland, the European Commission announced in October.

Poland can expect to receive at least €4.3 billion as part of the EU’s new plans, which envisage nine transport corridors at a cost of some €26 billion over the next budget period for the 28-nation bloc in 2014-2020. The fund triples the financing currently available.

Courtesy of The European Commission

The EC promises that a new so-called “core network” comprising nine corridors will “transform East-West connections, remove bottlenecks, upgrade infrastructure and streamline cross-border transport operations for passengers and businesses throughout the EU.

The nine corridors are set to be completed by 2030, with some 15,000 km of railway tracks expected to be upgraded to high-speed lines, as well as connect 35 cross-border projects and other railway links between European cities and major airports.

The European Commission announced that it is prioritizing the much-needed modernization of East-West corridors, with E11.3 billion earmarked for EU countries which make use of the bloc’s cohesion fund, including its largest beneficiary, Poland.

Poland will have two priority TEN-T corridors running through the country: the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor running through industrialized areas between Poland through to Northern Italy, as well as the North Sea-Baltic Corridor, which includes the flagship “Rail Baltic” project, a standard-gauge railway connecting northeastern Poland with the Baltic cities of Kaunas, Riga, and Tallinn.

Other railways ripe for modernization include the Warsaw-Poznań-Berlin line up to the German border, as well as a line running from Katowice to Brno in the Czech Republic. The line from Gdynia to Katowice may also get a much-needed upgrade.

“Without good connections Europe will not grow or prosper,” Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said in a statement. “It will connect East with West and replace today’s transport patchwork with a network that is genuinely European.”