Even though the hushed rumours have been circulating for some time, the confirmation of the sad news came on December 7th, when transport minister Sławomir Nowak informed that after the feasibility study is completed, the government will freeze all HSR-related work until 2030. “This does not threaten Łódź Fabryczna,” PKP PLK reassures.

The HSR project is another victim in the long line of anti-crisis spending cuts. The investment, estimated at 26 billion PLN and called the “Y” line, was to be created by 2020. It would connect Warsaw, Łódź, Wrocław and Poznań and constitute Poland’s first new railway line in 30 years, i.e. since the commissioning of the Central Railway Main Line. The trains would travel the distance of 450 km with a top speed of 350 kilometres per hour. The project was jump-started by the previous minister of infrastructure, Cezary Grabarczyk, who in 2009 told EC1 Dziennik Kolejowy the following:“Today high-speed rail is being developed in large countries in Europe. France was the first country, followed by Germany, Italy, Spain and also England. Poland, which belongs to six largest states of the European Union must implement its own project. (…) This project didn’t have sufficient support in the previous government , until Donald Tusk in his opening speech announced that they were going to perform a feasibility study in this tenure. Successful attempts were made to convince the Prime Minister that it is a technologically important project beneficial for the country but also the measure of technological advancement in Poland. It was when I started to believe in viability of this project.”

On September 6th 2011, PKP PLK signed an agreement with the consortium: Ingeneria IDOM Internacional S.A. and Biuro Projektów Komunikacyjnych w Poznaniu sp. z o. o. for the development of a feasibility study of a high-speed rail. In November 2011, the European Commission accepted the proposal for a regulation concerning strategic transport corridors in Europe. The “Y” line was included on the list. Thanks to this, Poland could expect up to 75% of funding for the construction of the high-speed rail line. EC’s objective was to create the so-called Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) by 2030 and to ensure that by 2050 every European citizen will be able to reach it within half an hour.

Unfortunately, one of the first decisions announced by the new minister of transport, Sławomir Nowak, was to completely suspend all work related to the HSR project immediately after the completion of the feasibility study. The minister declared that the government will now focus on the modernisation of conventional railways, which “require saving”, while the realisation of “expensive dreams”, as he labelled the HRS project, will have to wait. Meanwhile, the government continues the modernisation of the Central Railway Main Line from the Silesian Conurbation to Gdańsk. After renovation, the trains will be able to travel at speeds exceeding to 200 km/h. The ministry describes this investment as an evolutionary road to HSR.

By abandoning the HSR project, Poland lost a major chance for a civilizational leap, and Łódź seems to be especially aggrieved by the government’s decision. The design of the underground Łódź Fabryczna station was made specifically with HSR in mind. The construction works are underway since OCtober. Experts start to voice opinions that a construction of a railway station worth 1,76 billion PLN in the centre of Łódź is illogical in this situation. “The minister’s declaration will have no impact on the decision to build an underground Łódź Fabryczna station,” reassures Robert Kuczyński from the Centrum Kolei Dużych Prędkości PKP PLK SA (High-Speed Rail Centre PKP PLK SA). “Indeed, we have said that Łódź Fabryczna will be the first element of HSR, but this does not mean that its construction is in danger. These two investments are independent from each other – the station will be adapted to handling high-speed rail, but this does not mean it cannot be used in other ways. As far as HSR is concerned, we still have to conclude studies, which will last about 2 more years.”

The HSR tunnel underneath the city was an opportunity to integrate Łódź’s fragmented railway hub and turn the city into a central transfer point which would allow travellers to reach any part of Europe. Since the minister announced investments into conventional railway, Łódź’s only chance for any positive effects of this decision would come from an earlier construction of a long-distance railway tunnel, for which a feasibility study is also being developed.