Is it worth building a 1520 mm railway to Gdansk?

In Poland, the idea of constructing a 1520 mm railway to Gdansk is not supported, with concerns that such a project would pose a security threat to the country.

This information comes from Puls Biznesu, as reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

According to the publication, the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure received similar proposals from the Ukrainian side multiple times between 2022 and 2023, including during Polish-Ukrainian negotiations at the ministerial level and in written form.

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However, the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure representative Anna Shumanska noted that these proposals were met with skepticism.

In July 2022, a report was created outlining five potential routes for the 1520 mm railway. However, authors of the report highlighted numerous threats, including a lack of land for construction, appropriate rolling stock, qualified personnel for operation, or possible social protests.

“The main threat is the negative impact of broad-gauge communication with Gdansk on Poland’s defense strategy,” added Anna Shumanska.

According to the ministry, implementing this project is not feasible. However, there are alternative ways to increase the transportation of Ukrainian grain through the Polish railway network, such as utilizing Ukrainian grain wagons on standard European gauge wagons.

“I fully agree that building such railways in Poland would jeopardize our defense strategy,” noted retired General Yaroslav Krashevsky, former chief of rocket and artillery troops and director of the National Security Bureau.

He believes that constructing railways of Russian and Belarusian standards up to NATO borders is a very bad idea. While acknowledging the possibility of building railways through bridges, viaducts, or tunnels that could be exploded if necessary to prevent transport movement, Krashevsky assures that enemies and their services would take measures to safeguard and defend these sensitive areas.

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Dariusz Shimvich, the First Vice President of the Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, believes that since Ukraine seeks to join the European Union, it should adapt to its standards, including in the railway sector.

As previously reported, in early April, the Minister of Agrarian Policy, Nikolay Solsky, stated that Ukraine has many more grain wagons than all of Europe, from Romania to Portugal. Therefore, investing in wagons that would operate on European standard tracks is not practical.

The only way to solve the problem is to build a broad-gauge railway from the Ukrainian border to Gdansk and Klaipeda in Lithuania. This would allow Poland to profit from transit and send Ukrainian grain through Gdansk.

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