Polish National Development Plan

Motorways are public investment, railways – wasteful subsidy

On 14 January 2003 the Polish Government approved a document called
Narodowy Plan Rozwoju (National development plan),
which will put forward how Poland is
going to use the European Union funds in the years 2004 – 2006
(the aid is about 11,4 billion Euros). The National development plan will be
the basis for negotiations with the European Union and was delivered
to Brussels on January the 20th 2003. It covers various aspects of
Polish society, describes current state of and comes up with
solutions. We will focus on the environmental impact of transport
issues.

The National development plan relies on EU assistance which will
come under the structural policy (Community Initiatives and Community
Support Framework) and under the Cohesion Fund. Community Initatives
are designed to tackle specific problem in the regions (Initatives
Interreg and Equal, each financed by one of the Structural
Funds). Community Support Framework lay down the general strategy for
ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) assistance and benefit from
benefit from Structural Funds co-financing within the framework of the
priority regional objectives. The objective of the Cohesion Fund is to
enable Poland to catch up in the fields of transport and the
environment. The National development plan will shape the future of
Poland (including its transport system) in a significant manner.

This National development plan is a part of a broader
transportation strategy which, if implemented, will mean the
destruction of railways in Poland in the near future. The Polish
Government persistently supports cars as the main means of transport
and neglects railways, seen as a loss-making relic of the past and an
obstacle on the way to the „Modernity”. Obsessed by the idea to
develop highways and other „modern” types of transportation
facilities, the Polish government knowingly ignores the need to
modernise the railways.

Railways will soon disappear

Most of the railway infrastructure in Poland is outdated, the best
example being tracks that in many parts of Poland (especially the
former German territories) date from the 19th century. In many places
there are tracks or points dating to Kaiser Franz Josef (for example
in the town of Glucholazy). After 1991 the situation dramatically
worsened and the steady decline of train speed occurred on most local
lines. In many parts of Poland (Mazuria, Silesia) trains run much
slower than 100 years ago! In main Warsaw railway tunnel serving the
Central Railway Station the trains reach the maximum speed of 30 km/h!

Transportation strategy should focus on railway development and
should abandon building more and more monstrous motorways The
Government has to take urgent action to improve the railway
infrastructure. According to estimates, if 2 billion zlotys (500
million Euros) were spent yearly on railways’ modernization, it would
take 40 years to reach a required standard. Sadly, the Government will
provide a mere 0,2 billion zlotys to railway infrastructure this
year. This means simply a total decline of railways within a few
years!

The demise of local and regional passenger rail traffic is a
fact. Some action was taken to improve the situation: in September
2000, the Polish Parliament passed an Act on railways, which assigned
800 million zlotys to local and regional trains in the year
2003. Unfortunately, this has been changed recently and the sum was
slashed by more than half! In fact the PKP (Polish Railways) will
receive only 300 million zlotys (75 million Euros) for maintenance of
regional and local trains this year. This could lead to further
closures of thousands of kilometres of railway lines in the coming
years (with 3500 km of railways lines already closed in the last
years). Although the National development plan does provide aid for
upgrading the railway infrastructure within the framework of the
Cohesion Fund, it will be restricted to selected trans European
corridors for example E 20, E 30, E 65 and E 75 and selected inter-
city routes. According to the National development plan, the length of
railway lines in use will we reduced by 3000 kilometres (from 22 560
to 19,500 km) by 2006 (p.170). This means: 13.5% of railway lines in
use will disappear! The authorities calm down the public: these are
only „regional, loss-making” railway routes, so why worry?

Motorways: Roads not rights

At the conference „Poland?s Strategy in years 2004-2015 after EU
accession” hosted by President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaoeniewski, on
26 June 2002, one of the experts praised the motorway building
programme and stated:

„An improvement will occur when implementing of the
motorway and expressway building programme reaches an advanced
stage. We can then expect following benefits: (…) domestic and
international road traffic will increase (…)”

The expected effects of the implementation of the
National development plan are (p. 129-130):

– construction and/or rebuilding of 1750 km by 2010,
550 km of motorways by 2005

– construction and/or rebuilding of 200 km of
expressways.

The government is determined to build more than a thousand of
kilometres of motorways in the coming years. In a desperate attempt to
achieve this goal, the government wants to sacrifice basic civil
freedoms and rights. The new law on specific rules of investment
preparation and implementation regarding national roads is going to be
passed. Although the parliament is possibly going to change some of
the most controversial regulations, the legal opinion prepared by the
Spatial and Transport Policy Institute as well as Coalition for Just
Prices in Transport about the original draft may give you the
impression of the government’s intentions:

„The draft of the new law violates not only the Polish
Constitution, but also the following acts: Environmental Protection
Law, Construction Law, Act on Real Estate Management and
Administrative Procedure Code. It contradicts basic civil freedoms and
rights.”

Building motorways and improving car infrastructure will inevitably
increase car use, with side effects like urban sprawl occurring in the
„cities” in the United States. As a result, cities are going to turn
into endless suburbs, and the centres are going to turn into a
slum. This process, common in the USA, is also starting in Poland.

The Plan does not explain how the greenhouse gases related to
transport will be reduced. There is no explicit forecast what the
environmental impact of each transportation project will be. The
authors’ wishful thinking that more motorways mean lower pollution may
not prove true. Common sense and experience gathered in industrialised
countries show that the hopes to reduce pollution by building
motorways will not be fulfilled and exactly the contrary will happen:
the pollution will increase since motorways encourage high speed
driving and increase car usage.

Air pollution in cities is due to… buses

With the exception of Warsaw and Upper Silesia, there is no
strategy to reduce motorised traffic in urban areas. Absurd remarks
like: „air pollution in cities is due to… buses” (page 33)
may give the impression how the authors view the role of public
transport in cities. Since the Cohesion Fund focuses on big
investments, it is no surprise that most „benefits” will be achieved
in Poland as a result of the modernization of the transit
routes. „Effects in local and regional infrastructure will be
limited.” (p. 133). Nevertheless, one could hope Community
Initatives and the CFR Action Plans „Transport – Maritime
Administration” and „Regional Development”, which are supposedly
region – oriented, will put the emphasis on sustainable local
development.

Unfortunately, the Plan focuses on roads. The main effect in
railway transport will be an improvement in Intercity
connections. Apart from isolated cases like Warsaw and Upper Silesia
(p. 117) there is no coherent plan to make railways an important part
of local transport system and when it comes to improvement in local
railway connections, no positive effects are expected. (p. 112,
120-121)

Pollution not a problem

The problem of car-related pollution and noise in cities is not
adequately addressed. The authors admit air pollution concentration
exceeds the acceptable level in urban areas and city inhabitants are
increasingly exposed to noise (p. 29), however, there is no target
when it comes to reduce the number of car journeys, just a vague idea
that the environmental impact of cars in cities should be
alleviated. The Government knows exactly it wants to build 1750 km of
motorways, but when it comes to the reduction in car traffic, there
are no measurable goals, no metrics, no digits which would be easy to
monitor and evaluate. We do not know how many Poles will live in the
year 2006 in areas where noise and pollution levels are exceeded? We
do not know what percentage of journeys in cities will be done by cars
and what will be the share of public transport and bicycles?

The government has no plan

It goes without saying the Government has no national plan to
develop the bicycle infrastructure as the most effective and
environmentally friendly means of local transport, especially in urban
areas. By contrast, such plans exist in many countries. For instance,
the Dutch Masterplan Bicycle, which is a part of the Second Transport
Structure Plan, sets targets for the year 2010: 30% increase in the
number of kilometres travelled by bicycles, reduction of deaths by 50%
and injuries by 40% among cyclists. In this way, the Masterplan
Bicycle provides a valuable contribution to the main aim of the Second
Transport Structure Plan: the reduction of car use.

Although the authors of the Polish National development plan
mentioned that there are no cycle facilities in cities and it is an
important factor restricting the quality of life (p. 33), they show a
total inability to come up with any solution.

Therefore, the reduction of car pollution and noise in cities is a
dream which will never come true.

Summary

The priority of the National development plan is obvious: motorways
construction and supporting the car infrastructure. As a result of the
National development plan most of journeys are going to be done by
cars. In a desperate attempt to build the motorways, the government
wants to sacrifice basic civil freedoms and rights.

The National development plan does intend to achieve sustainable
development. However, the Plan does not explain how the emissions of
greenhouse gases related to each transportation project will be
reduced. Common sense and experience gathered in industrialised
countries show that the hopes to reduce pollution by building
motorways will not be fulfilled and exactly the contrary will happen:
the pollution will increase.

Apart from isolated cases there is no coherent plan to make railway
the important part of local transport system. Bicycle is not
explicitly mentioned as a viable and environmentally friendly means of
local transport. Unless the National development plan is changed, cars
will be continue to be the main means of transport and railways will
be limited to freight traffic and a handful of passenger lines. This
could lead to a situation comparable with that in the USA where many
states are no longer covered by passenger trains at all.

– Priorities should be given to improve the
environmentally friendly means of transport: railways,
public transport and bicycle.

– Insane motorways and car infrastructure development should be
reduced.

– Clear targets of reduction in car journeys and CO2
emissions must be set.

– More attention should be paid to regional
environmentally friendly transport infrastructure.