Poland's new president aims to revert to initial transportation hub project
Poland's new President Karol Nawrocki has signed a legislative initiative to introduce a bill aimed at revisiting the original version of the Central Transportation Hub (CPK) project, as drafted by the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government.
Nawrocki, who is seen as a PiS ally, signed the document on Thursday in the west-central town of Kalisz, in line with his earlier declaration that the bill concerning the CPK construction will be one of the first he submits to the lower house.
CPK is a flagship multi-billion-zloty project that would encompass a brand-new airport in central Poland, with rail and road links. Originally drafted by PiS, it was restructured by the current coalition government. The optimised investment approach led to reduced scope and a delayed opening date, which the opposition views as a setback for the project.
Major changes have also been made to the railway component, moving away from the previous government's "spokes" model towards a new concept called "Poland in 100 minutes."
In the spokes model, 10 high-speed railway lines would radiate from the new CPK airport, connecting various regions directly to the hub. "Poland in 100 minutes" aims to enable travel from Poland's major cities to Warsaw in a maximum of 100 minutes. Critics argue that this concept marginalises smaller urban centres.
"Kalisz is becoming a symbol of many similar cities that have been eliminated from the government's CPK project," Nawrocki said. "As president of Poland, I will never agree to exclude medium-sized towns or rural Poland from the distribution of all the goods that we work together to produce."
Nawrocki also said that "Kalisz cannot be torn apart by high-speed rail," solidarising with local residents protesting against the modified rail route that would cross the urban area.(PAP)aj/mf
