The Łódź Widzew Railway Station faces the redevelopment in order to serve the passengers in a bigger rail traffic. In spring 2010 The Łódź Fabryczna Railway Station will be closed.

For years The Łódź Fabryczna Railway Station has been the end of a railroad attached to the Warsaw- Vienna railway line. In Poland it has a marginal meaning although it is situated in the centre of the city. What revolution will take place when a New Łódź City Centre will start building. 

Grzegorz Nita: the first stage will probably start in the second quarter of 2010. We will modernize the railway line between The Łódź Widzew Railway Station and The Łódź Fabryczna Railway Station. The railway station will be placed underground and it will be prepared to serve so-called trains of fast speed. In the second stage of the investment the Łódź Fabryczna Railway Station and the Łódź Kaliska Railway Station will be connected by a diametral tunnel built under the centre of the city. In this way the fast train will be able to run under the Łódź Kaliska Railway Station and further towards Wrocław and Poznań. In Łódź one train stop will be built because the distance between our two stations is too small. However, we may exploit the tunnel and the Łódź Kaliska Railway Station to travel by trains, both regional and agglomerative. And also we will travel to Zgierz or Zduńska Wola, which is impossible nowadays.

What made PKP Ltd  decide to participate in the project of the building of New Łódź City Centre?

-The Łódź-Warsaw line was one of the first railway lines in Poland to be modernized after our country had joined the European Union. Formally it is not on the list of lines important for the country because it consists of two sections: the part of the line No 1, that means Warsaw – Koluszki and the line No 17, that means Koluszki –  Łódź Fabryczna. In 2008 we finished , as part of the first stage, the modernization of the section from Skierniewice to  Łódź Widzew without the station itself. The second part concerns the section from Skierniewice to Warsaw, there we want to start in autumn and the section from Łódź Widzew to Łódź Fabryczna which is interesting for us because of the New Center of Łódź. There we will start the modernization in spring 2010. At first we planned that this line would not be rebuilt and it would be modernized only to be adopted for trains of higher speed, it means maximum 120km/h. We did not want to rebuilt the line, only the buildings of the station were to be rebuilt, and on a small scale. As the result of the agreement signed on 31st July 2007 between the Łódź authorities, PKP Ltd and Polish Railway Lines company, which manages the infrastructure and realizes the investments, the parties agreed to implement  common undertakings called the New Center of Łódź. It comprises not only the modernization of the railway lines, the building of a new railway station, but also a lot of other buildings of both public and commercial character. The bus station will be built and a Special Culture Zone will appear. A Special Art Zone will be built as part of it. It will be a quite new quality in the very centre of the city.

What will a new railway station be like?

-It will be located 16,5 metre underground. In the strictly rail part, that is in the track and platform scheme now I can say that there will be certainly two-edged three platforms and the area for the fourth one.

Hollowing the railway station under the surface of the ground will give the city a big free area. Do you already know how this area will be developed?

-All sketches made by an architect Rob Krier were prepared in 2007 and we call them a spatial disposition. They are the guidelines for us. They condition the possibilities of the building development of the levels, from zero upwards. Basing this disposal further plans have been prepared. The city architect’s hints define future development of this area. For instance how high buildings we may build here. We have prepared the initial concept of the development of this area, so now I can say that we are going to build six-storeyed buildings and higher even twelve-storeyed ones. All will have different functions. Everything located lower will certainly fulfill public functions, particularly those parts  immediately above the railway station concourse. Higher there will be places purely commercial: trade, services and hotels. Everything must earn a profit.

The feasibility study to realize the project of modernization of the rail infrastructure has already been prepared. What are the decisions?

-We know how the railway station will look like in its rail part, a new communication track has been marked. We will start the hollowing of the railway tracks from Widzewska street. When we get Niciarniana street the railway tracks will be on a such level that the way will be grade-separated. Above the tunnel there will appear new streets, probably they will lead from Kopcińskiego street towards The Łódź Fabryczna Railway Station. A connection of two streets will be reconstructed. Now they are separated by the railway lines, I mean Uniwersytecka street and Targowa street. The intersection of these two traffic routes will be located as an immediate neighbourhood of the station and Kobro Square. On the level of minus 8 metres there will be a bus station serving both national and international links. Nowadays the PKS Łódź Fabryczna station is a bus terminus. It will become an arterial station and the bus terminus will be moved to the outskirts of the Łódź Kaliska Railway Station. Now there is a bus stop on the side of Włókniarzy street.

These are big changes. The Łódź Fabryczna Railway Station which is 140 years old will disappear. And although its conditions are awful some people will miss it…

-The present railway station building collides completely with a future underground station. It is situated on a planned tunnel and it is impossible to leave it in an untouched condition. We are planning to realize this huge undertaking in the form of an open earthwork. The tunnel will not be hollowed-out. We are going to use this kind of technology only in the course of building the tunnel towards the Łódź Kaliska Railway Station. The old building of the station is in the register of vintage buildings but not on the list. As far as its construction is concerned the present one is significantly different from the original building. We want to preserve some elements and integrate them with a new building to emphasize its historical character. The citizens of Łódź should remember that such a station was built here. Therefore in new spaces they will find some elements of history and we do not want the same situation to be repeated as it happened with the old building of the Łódź Kaliska Railway Station. It was completely pulled down and we may only see it in old photographs. No trace left.

Before you open a new railway station, Łódź Widzew, which is far from the city centre, will become the main railway station of the city. How long will the passengers have to have patience?

-At first the Łódź Widzew Railway Station and its surroundings will be redeveloped. We want to start it in the third quarter of 2009. We have to adopt the station to a bigger rail traffic and passengers’ service. The building will be expanded, there will appear car parks for about 400 cars. In front of the station building there will be located a bus terminus, probably for three bus lines. These works will be performed by both PKP Ltd. and The Road and   Transport Management in Łódź and they will be completed at the end of the first quarter of 2010 because in the second quarter of 2010 the Łódź Fabryczna Railway Station will be closed. To make the rail traffic better some trains which run to the Łódź Fabryczna Railway Station nowadays will run through Łódź Widzew to the Łódź Kaliska Railway Station. The Łódź Widzew Railway Station even after the redevelopment of the buildings will not get technical possibilities in order to serve a great number of passengers. However, it has to function as an important junction point until we finish all basic works between the Łódź Widzew- Łódź Fabryczna stations. The modernization of this part will start from the whole redevelopment of the station, its platform and railway track scheme. We are planning that trains between Łódź Widzew and Łódź Fabryczna will run in 2012/2013. Then the buildings above the level zero will not be built. We are talking now about the completion of the investment as far as rail tracks, platforms, exits, basic passengers’ service, elements of road infrastructure are concerned. They will allow to lead to and out passengers from this station.

When will the first trains run under Łódź?

Polish Railway Lines company deals with this project. As far as I know there will be an agreement concerning the study of building of the diametral  tunnel under Łódź soon. The order is going to be signed this year, so next year we should have the study. Realizing it is a completely different issue. This will certainly be connected with the realization of the fast train program.

Will it be possible to go to the furthest places of Poland and Europe from the centre of Łódź?

-The connections are arranged by different carriers for instance Intercity or PKP Przewozy Regionalne. However we hope that an integrated agglomerative railway will arise. You should ask about it the Speaker of the Province. I know that the feasibility study for this project is being prepared. I hope that the number of connections will increase but we know that the Łódź Fabryczna Railway Station is a head-end station so it has limited possibilities. Only after the connection with the Łódź Kaliska Railway Station we will get opportunities to travel fast towards the north or south-north. Then Łódź will finally have fixed international connections.

And ‘Now the time for Łódź’- what is it?

The action ‘Now the time for Łódź’ is a promotion of the city through its railway. We are preparing the project to cover trains from Łódź to Warsaw with a special foil. Except the slogan ‘Now the time for Łódź’ we will  put the images of people important for the city –contemporary authorities. In this way those people will promote our city. Such a train presenting in a symbolic way the Special Art Zone should run this year. The name of the action is obviously a play on words in Polish but it reflects our plans and dreams about the future of the city. We may hope that together with the new quality of the railway in Łódź there will appear a lot of changes so at last there will be the time for our city. Thanks to this big modernization of the railway junction Łódź will gain an additional chief asset which it has not had before, I mean the possibility of connections with all parts of Poland and further of the world. If we also have intersecting motorways: north-south and east-west we can see that Łódź will become the city with one of the best rail connections, not only in Poland. We notice a huge opportunity for the development of the city. The whole enterprise ‘The New Łódź City Centre’ is the project which has never been registered before anywhere, it forms the new quality and tremendous changes. This may attract the attention of Polish people and people in Europe to our city.

The author: Marek Lewoc