Saturday, December 25, 2010

Transportation

Today transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, shipping and air travel. Positioned in Central Europe and with an eastern border compromising the largest external border of the Schengen Area with the rest of Eastern Europe, Poland has long been, and remains a key country through which imports to and exports from the European Union pass.
Since joining the EU in 2004, Poland has invested large amounts of money into the modernization of its transport networks. The country now has a developing expressways network compromised of motorways such as the A4 and express roads such as the S7. In addition to these newly-built roads, many local and regional roads are being rebuilt as part of a national program to rebuild all roads in Poland.
Again, with regard to railways, much the same situation is taking place. The Polish authorities have begun a program by which they hope to increase operating speeds across the entire Polish rail network; this is particularly true of a number of national trunk routes which are expected to soon receive new rolling stock capable of speeds over 200 km/h. Finally, there is a plan to introduce high speed rail to Poland from around 2014. The Polish government recently revealed that it intends to connect all major cities to a future high-speed rail network by 2020. Most intercity rail operations in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity whilst regional trains are run by a number of operators, the largest of which is Przewozy Regionalne.
The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed, although construction of new airport and seaport facilities is ongoing. Poland has a number of international airports; the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines, which is the largest airline of Eastern Central Europe and one of the world's oldest airlines still in operation today. Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic Sea coast, with most freight operations using either Gdynia or Gdańsk as their base. Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Port of Świnoujście.

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