Faster rail freight traffic between Polish ports and Silesia
Starting from December 2021, the Polish ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia will enhance rail connectivity with the industrial centres of Upper Silesia. The freight trains will begin to run faster via the Inowrocław railway bypass, an important section of the transport corridor. This is a result of the investments of PKP PLK, the country’s rail infrastructure manager.
The works on the Inowrocław railway bypass started last year. First, PKP PLK renovated the railway viaduct on the route to allow heavier freight trains to run through it. This year, PPMT, a subsidiary of PKP PLK that is focused on the maintenance and construction works, replaced tracks and sleepers on the railway bypass and at the Jaksice station. After completing the investment project, the freight trains will run via the Inowrocław railway bypass at a maximum speed of 80 kilometres per hour (the speed before the modernisation works was 60 kilometres per hour). The new parameter will be put into practice in mid-December when the new train schedule will become operational. Usually, around 40 freight trains use the mentioned line to bypass Inowrocław. Many of them transport freight from the ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia to Upper Silesia or vice versa.
Bydgoszcz railway bypass
PKP PLK has already allocated more than 150 million zloty in upgrading the rail infrastructure of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship in recent years. Besides the Inowrocław bypass, it modernised the railway detour around the city of Bydgoszcz. Around 60 kilometres of tracks and about 25 kilometres of overhead wires were replaced as well as six railway viaducts and bridges were renovated within the project. As a result, the freight trains began to run at a maximum speed of 100 kilometres per hour (instead of 60 kilometres per hour before). This project costs around 115 million zloty.