photo: M. M. Czarnecki / CC BY-NC 2.0 / Flickr/Pesa Dart Train on Wrocław Main Railway Station, Poland
Poland’s government is planning a major shift in how railway investments are financed. The changes form part of a broader strategy to strengthen rail transport in Poland at a time when the country has largely completed its core motorway network and rail is increasingly being identified as a priority of national transport policy.
More Money for Rail Without Higher Fuel Prices
As Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Piotr Malepszak told Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, the foundation of robust and long-term railway infrastructure funding will be revenues from mineral oil taxation. The reform will be based on a new ratio between excise duty and the fuel tax included in the final price of petrol and diesel.
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Under the plan, the Polish government intends to increase the fuel tax while proportionally reducing excise duty. Unlike excise tax, the fuel tax can be managed directly by the government, allowing its proceeds to be channelled straight into the Railway Fund. Malepszak assured the public that the adjustment will be price-neutral and will not affect final fuel prices for drivers. According to government estimates, the annual allocation to the Railway Fund could rise from the current EUR 475 million (PLN 2 billion) to EUR 2,4 billion (PLN 10 billion).
Stable Financing for Railway Infrastructure
Malepszak said the new approach is intended to provide financial stability for railways and replace the existing system of year-by-year budget planning. Resources within the Railway Fund will be managed flexibly, allowing savings achieved in one year or on specific projects to be redirected to other investments in the future. He stressed that this model would enable more effective long-term planning and implementation of infrastructure projects.
Dziennik Gazeta Prawna also reports that a further step in the reform could allow the Railway Fund to issue securities and take on debt. Such a move would significantly strengthen its financial capacity and accelerate the delivery of key infrastructure projects.
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Medium-term, stable transport infrastructure financing—already standard practice in Germany and Austria—has long been advocated by the Czech Chamber of Commerce as well as by most freight and passenger rail operators. The current dependence of the sector on short-term budgeting through the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure (SFDI) and ad hoc investment decisions by the Czech Ministry of Transport’s central commission could soon become a thing of the past. Rail operators would clearly welcome such a shift.
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