The contract for designing and execution of the Warsaw-Łódź railway line, Stage 2, Lot A, section Warszawa Zachodnia-Skierniewice has been signed in the PKP PLK (Polish Railways) offices. Thanks to this investment project, in 2012 the journey from Łódź to Warsaw will take only 65 minutes. The next stage of the project is the construction of the Łódź Fabryczna underground multimodal railway station.

The Łódź-Warsaw railway line is being gradually adjusted to increasing standards. Modernisation of the whole route started in 2006. Stage 1 included the Skierniewice-Łódź Widzew section overhaul, thanks to which the duration of the Warsaw-Łódź journey shrank to 84 minutes. Stage 2 of the Warsaw-Łódź railway line modernisation project has been divided into so-called lots. Lot A involves modernisation of the 58 km section between Warszawa Zachodnia and Skierniewice (Miedniewice), Lot B involves modernisation of the Łódź Fabryczna–Łódź Widzew section including the Łódź Fabryczna and Łódź Widzew stations, and Lot C includes the completion of the following elements: the Local Control Centre in Skierniewice and the road viaduct in Rogów. The works are financed from the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment for 2007-2013.

On 26 May, the PKP PLK S.A. (Polish Railways) company signed the contract for Lot A, i.e. modernisation of the Warsaw-Łódź line from Warszawa Zachodnia to Skierniewice (Miedniewice) with the consortium created by the following companies: Przedsiębiorstwo Napraw Infrastruktury sp. z o.o., PKP Energetyka S.A. and Pomorskie Przedsiębiorstwo Mechaniczno-Torowe sp. z o.o. The net contract value is PLN 870 million net. The investment project includes elaboration of the design documentation and modernisation of tracks and their substructure, contact lines, bridges and viaducts, platforms in stations and passengers’ stops, non-collision intersections, equipment and structures for environmental protection and train operation systems. In this way, redundant train speed limits will be removed as the trains will be able to reach the speed of 160 km/h in these sections. The investment project completion will make it possible to shorten the time of journey between Warsaw and Łódź by approx. 13 minutes to the total of 65 minutes. The comfort and safety of passengers will also be enhanced, vibrations and noise emission will be limited and the railway environmental impact will be reduced. The straight course of the Warsaw-Łódź railway line in the Warsaw-Skierniewice section also makes its future adjustment to higher speed technically possible. Presently, the Warsaw-Łódź line, particularly the Warsaw-Skierniewice (Miedniewice) section, is the busiest railway line section in Poland, as on average it operates 69 train pairs every day, including 12 pairs of freight trains. The works are to be completed in May 2012.

This is the biggest railway line modernisation contract concluded this year by Polskie Linie Kolejowe (Polish Railways). For Łódź, we hope that it will be finalised. The tendering procedure for the contractor responsible for creating the design and constructing the underground Łódź Fabryczna station is still in progress. The investment project completion stage is foreseen to commence at the beginning of 2011 and it is going to last 4 years.