Commissioning a station master

A new firm to oversee the operation and maintenance of Poland’s railway stations comes at a price.

A new PKP Group subsidiary is expected to appear soon. The company, Dworce Kolejowe (Railroad Stations), will be responsible for managing Poland’s railroad stations.

To accomplish this it will impose fees on train operators, similar to those which airlines pay to airports. The new firm will also be responsible for leasing retail and advertising space. These two sources of income are expected to finance the renovation and maintenance of many of Poland’s neglected stations.

According to the Infrastructure Ministry, which has been involved in preparing the appropriate legislation, taken individually station fees will be moderate.

Combined, however, they should bring in zł.200-300 million a year to finance station maintenance and renovation. This new legislation was originally supposed to come into effect in Q1 2010, but as of last week it was still in an early stage of preparation.

The addition of a railroad station fee will translate into higher ticket prices, but it’s not yet known by how much. The fee itself will be set by a separate law currently being worked on.

When asked for a comment on the fee, a representative of PKP Intercity commented that, without having seen the legislation, it was too soon to say.

Adrian Furgalski, director of Transport Consultants Group Tor criticized the idea of an additional tax-like fee. “Stations should be handed over or sold to local governments if PKP doesn’t have money to do anything with them,” he said during a recent conference.

At the moment, many station renovation plans are stalled by a lack of funds and the fact that different PKP subsidiaries own different parts of a station.

This year the government has earmarked zł.102 million for station renovations.

Marcin Poznań