High-speed train from Prague to Tallinn. SŽ signed an agreement on cooperation on a new railway through Poland
Driving times between Prague and Warsaw are to be reduced to four hours.
The future network of the Czech high-speed railway is to be connected not only to the planned high-speed connections in Poland, but also to the new Rail Baltica railway, which connects Poland with the Baltic republics. The high-speed train network will thus make it possible to travel from Prague to Tallinn, Estonia. The first part should be completed in 2028.
This follows from today’s cooperation agreement, which was signed today at the Railway Direction Days conference in Warsaw by representatives of the Railway Administration, the Polish state organization Centralny Port Komunikacijny (CPK) and Rail Baltica. It is an initiative within the so-called Three Seas.
“The cooperation of several countries on this project can only bring benefits. It is necessary to enable simple travel without transfers,Marcin Horała, representative of the Polish government for CPK, said at the conference.
We are not alone in Europe when it comes to high-speed rail.@Spravazeleznic in Warsaw just now signed a memorandum with @CPK_PL AND @RailBaltica, which confirms our common joint plans to build almost 4,500 km of VRT in the Trojmoří region. 👇 pic.twitter.com/MEwn8tGAXq
— Martin Švehlík VRT (@MartinSvehlikSZ) January 18, 2023
The Polish part will be finished first
In addition to the new large airport between Warsaw and Łódź, CPK is in charge of the construction of high-speed lines in Poland. According to their representatives, the first section from Warsaw to Łódź will be opened in 2028. By the same year, the modernized line from Warsaw to the city of Bialystok near the Lithuanian border is to be completed, from where Rail Baltica is to continue through the Baltic states. The Baltic high-speed line is to be completed in 2030. In Poland, it will be connected to Warsaw and further to Katowice and Ostrava, where it is to be connected to the Czech network.
The route from Prague to Tallinn will be over 1,500 long kilometers (even longer if routed via Wrocław, Brno and Ostrava). “The entire project can bring about a fundamental transformation of transport in the region and economic growth. We have a lot to learn from the mistakes made in the west when building high-speed lines.” said CPK chief Mikolaj Wild.
Representatives of all three parties praise that it is not just a formal cooperation, but some concrete steps are already being taken. For example, the Polish side provides a feasibility study for a part of the connection on Czech territory (Katovice – Ostrava), the Czech side deals with the route to Wroclaw. “Trains can gradually replace air transport in a number of routes,” said Radek Čech from the Railway Administration. According to him, the high-speed railway can also bring greater development of the regions.
The cost of high-speed lines in the region is estimated at 60 billion euros. According to the authors study for the entire project, the benefits of such a construction can double the costs. Roughly half of this amount comes from travel tax savings. According to the study, for example, driving from Prague to Warsaw should take four hours, to Vilnius eight hours.
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