A consortium comprising two South Korean companies won the tender for the railway line design connecting Katowice and Ostrava as a part of the CPK.
The first member is Korea National Railway (KNR), a state-owned enterprise focusing on railway construction, technical consultancy services, feasibility studies, and high-speed rail projects. The second entity is Dohwa Engineering, a renowned South Korean engineering and construction firm that has completed over 7,000 national and international projects.
The CPK investment initiative encompasses constructing around 2,000 kilometres of new railway lines, including implementing high-speed rail. Five investor variants have already been selected, with the Katowice-Ostrava route being one of them. Other routes include Warsaw-Łódź, Łódź-Wrocław, Łętownia-Rzeszów, and Sieradz-Poznań, which became available in May.
The Warsaw-Łódź route, spanning 140 kilometres, and the Łódź-Wrocław route, stretching across 200 kilometres, are currently in the design phase. Biuro Projektów 'Metroprojekt' is spearheading the development of the former, encompassing the area behind the planned CPK hub. At the same time, a consortium consisting of Egis Poland, Egis Rail, and Jaf-Geotechnika is responsible for extending the line to Łódź.
Other sections of the railway network are also advancing rapidly. Egis is designing the Łódź-Sieradz line, while the Sieradz-Kępno line is under the purview of the BBF and IDOM consortium. The route between Kępno and Czernica Wrocławska is being prepared by the MGGP and Voessing Polska consortium, with the Czernica Wrocławska-Wrocław section falling under the responsibility of Systra.
The upcoming railway line aims to position Upper Silesia as a vital regional transportation hub. CPK envisions trains reaching speeds of up to 250 km/h along the Polish section. The Katowice-Ostrava stretch plays a pivotal role in the EU's Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), connecting major cities such as Katowice, Warsaw, Krakow, Brno, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna, and Budapest.
