The inhabitants of Łódź did not travel long from this station. It is to be demolished because it does not fit the CPK plans
The future of the CPK and the accompanying railway expansion is in doubt because the three parties that have a chance to form a government are not interested in continuing the PiS project, on which hundreds of millions of zlotys have already been spent. The residents of Retkinia in Łódź are also waiting for a decision, as they do not know whether the railway station opened two years ago will be demolished.
It is still not known whether the Central Communication Port will be built. Opposition parties, which are likely to form the government, are against the construction of a mega airport along with railway and road infrastructure.
Even before the elections, work was in full swing.
– We are in the process of obtaining a location decision for the construction of an airport under the Central Communication Program – said Marcin Horała, Deputy Minister of Funds and Regional Policy, government plenipotentiary for CPK, on Radio Zet a few days ago. In an interview with PAP, he added that as far as the airport is concerned, “we have started preparatory construction works, or to put it journalistically: the groundbreaking has already taken place.”
In a few or a dozen or so months we will find out whether the millions of zlotys that have been spent so far on the airport in Baranów will not turn out to be wasted.
Łódź: railway station to be demolished
Nowadays, many people ask about the logic of actions. This is the case, for example, in Łódź, where it turned out that in order to build the High-Speed Railway, the railway stop in the Retkinia estate, used by passengers of the Łódź Agglomeration Railway, had to be demolished. It was put into operation only two years ago and is part of the transport hub in the fourth largest city in terms of population. Unfortunately, it does not fit into the plans of the HSR.
– Due to the need to ensure railway connections of the existing line No. 14 with the newly constructed line No. 85, there is indeed a need to rebuild the Łódź-Retkinia station and the pedestrian bridge. Therefore, the stop and the footbridge will be demolished for the purposes of the investment – admitted Konrad Maksyk, spokesman for the Central Communication Port, in an interview with the “Transport Publiczny” website, which describes the case.
If the station is demolished, Retkinia residents will return to the buses they used before trains were allowed to stop. The inhabitants of the towns through which the railway tracks are to run are in a more difficult situation, and therefore it is necessary to expropriate them and then demolish their houses. April this year was the deadline for residents of communes where the airport was to be built to apply for the Voluntary Acquisition of Land for Construction Program. The CPK company tempted them with its buyout rules: an owner who joined the program could count on a higher valuation of his property. In the case of a building, it is 140 percent. value, and land – 120 percent.
The Voluntary Acquisition Program also provided that interested residents, instead of a classic sale transaction, may decide to choose replacement properties, of which CPK has over 600 ha, mainly within a radius of 100 km from the planned airport.
CPK: airport near Warsaw and railway expansion
The Central Communication Port is a planned transfer hub between Warsaw and Łódź, which will integrate air, rail and road transport. As part of this project, 37 km west of Warsaw, in an area of approx. 3 thousand hectares, an airport is to be built, which in the first stage will be able to serve 40 million passengers a year.
The CPK is to be launched in 2028 together with a railway junction and a section of the Warsaw-Łódź High-Speed Railway. The rest of CPK’s railway investments are planned until the end of 2034.
