- The new airport in Barano will be built by 2032. The airports in Modlin and Ockese will be modernized. In addition, a high-speed rail network will be built – these are the main conclusions of today’s press conference of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
- There’s certainly relief, because last February, staff assumed the project wouldn’t go ahead at all. There was great concern, and today there is a great relief. However, details are still lacking – we hear from company employees
- We lost half a year because of this audit story. Good employees left and contracts expired. Some processes have to start again, complains one employee. In his opinion, this will delay construction by up to two years
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The new airport in Barano will be built by 2032. The airports in Modlin and Ockese will be modernized. In addition, a high-speed rail network will be built, although it will no longer converge at the central point near Barano – these are the main conclusions of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s press conference today.
The announcement of what will happen next with the CPK project has been awaited for several months. The ruling coalition sent contradictory messages in this regard. At times, it spoke of “paranoia” and the need for radical changes, and at other times it was content with announcing the correction and continuation of the plans of its predecessors. We were supposed to know the decision in March, but the Prime Minister did not issue a clear statement on this matter until June 26.
Donald Tusk on Wednesday promised a “triple leap towards modernity,” which would include a new airport, high-speed railways and the development of LOT Airlines so that it would be “on the same level” as Germany’s Lufthansa. He also announced that the “igreka” project, a high-speed railway linking Warsaw with Lodz, as well as with Poznan and Wroclaw, would continue.
At the same time, the Prime Minister has not spared harsh words for CPK’s actions so far. He called it “centralized cash passing” and said the project was full of “cunning and incompetence.”
Urgent meeting with the head of the Kurdistan Communist Party after the TASK conference
How did the employees themselves react to the Prime Minister’s conference? – The atmosphere in the company. We were hoping to get more details. – Hear from someone.
Others do not hide their frustration with the information chaos and talk about the rumors that have been circulating in the company for weeks.
– It is very sad that employees have to watch press conferences to find out what is happening with their company – an experienced CPK employee tells us.
— We struggled to get meetings with company authorities, where someone would explain to us what was happening. He adds to no avail. According to our information, such a previously unannounced meeting took place only Wednesday afternoon, shortly after the Prime Minister’s conference.
— There is certainly relief today, because in February, employees thought the project would not proceed at all. There was great concern, and today there is a great relief. However, there are no details yet – we hear from someone else.
We are pleased that the government announced the continuation of the program. Poland needs this airport and railway network, says Jakub Fabianski, head of the Solidarity union at the CPK. He adds: It is too early to evaluate the proposed changes, but the most important thing is that we return to dynamic work.
“Such a plan is a waste of money.”
In informal conversations, other employees are more critical of the Prime Minister’s speech.
– Some parts of the conference were incomprehensible. If the AI replaced Tusk’s votes with Morawiecki’s, there would be no difference. Tusk spoke of decentralization, of running railways to smaller centres. After all, this has been one of the key aspects of this project so far – as we’ve heard from the company.
In turn, Minister Lasek referred to air traffic forecasts. The question is whether any new forecasts have been developed or whether the current government is relying on old forecasts, which not long ago were criticized for being discarded. What has happened in recent months to take previous predictions into account? – asks the employees.
Their doubts are also raised by the Prime Minister’s words about the need to “correct mistakes” in the context of expropriation.
– What’s the harm if no one is confiscated? – One of our interlocutors gets angry. He points out that the airport land in Barano has so far only been purchased within the framework of a voluntary acquisition programme. Railway purchases and expropriations have not yet begun.
— People from Parano got money to buy houses and land, they also got money to move, and now they live in a completely different place. The employee explains that this statement was strange.
– Many people are disappointed because schedules are postponed. The biggest concern is related to the idea of updating Chopin, which will likely delay the opening of the CPK. In total, the opening of a new airport will make the other two airports extinct. Our interlocutor points out that such a plan seems like a waste of money.
Failed audit. “We lost half a year”
Our interlocutors are angry about another issue. CPK State Commissioner Maciej Lasek has repeatedly announced that detailed audits will be carried out, on which the fate of the project will depend. For this reason, work at the company was suspended for several months, leaving many employees without tasks, which we described in detail in Onet at the beginning of April.
Ultimately, the audits turned out to be a failure. There were no people willing to participate in the tenders, their dates were postponed several times, and finally they were not held at all.
“We wasted half a year on this audit story,” complained one employee. In his opinion, these few months of delay will lead to a delay of up to two years in the construction of the airport.
— During these six months, good employees left and contracts expired. He explains that some processes have to start over.
– There is what is called the bird breeding season. If we do not finish the construction work before then, we will have to wait for several months. Therefore, with a tight schedule, even a small downtime translates into a much larger delay for the entire project.
— All investment work has been halted for half a year under the guise of an audit, we hear from someone else. — There are voices in the company that there were no external audits, because they would have confirmed the correctness of the decisions made by the previous management.
‘The Prime Minister does not understand railways well’
As mentioned, the biggest changes announced by Tusk will relate to the railway portion of the project. According to the current concept, a large transportation hub was to be built near Barano. It was supposed to lead to railway “speakers”, that is, high-speed lines from the largest cities.
As the Prime Minister announced, this is a thing of the past. However, high-speed railway lines will be built, and from Warsaw to Krakow, Katowice, Poznań, Wrocław or Gdańsk – according to Tusk – in about 100 minutes. So what will the new network look like?
– There have been some indications, but no specific details when it comes to the rail component. We don’t know what stays and what goes, one employee tells us. In his opinion, the ministers at the conference “avoided answering.”
Another employee specializing in the railway sector adds that, in his opinion, “the Prime Minister does not understand these issues well.”
– After all, the point with Barano was that the two main railway lines of the country intersect there, i.e. “Igrek” and the Central Railway. This is nothing new, it has been this way for a long time. All the hope lies with Malcszak, he says, pointing to Deputy Infrastructure Minister Piotr Malcszak, a railway industry expert who was also present at Wednesday’s conference.
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Echo Richards embodies a personality that is a delightful contradiction: a humble musicaholic who never brags about her expansive knowledge of both classic and contemporary tunes. Infuriatingly modest, one would never know from a mere conversation how deeply entrenched she is in the world of music. This passion seamlessly translates into her problem-solving skills, with Echo often drawing inspiration from melodies and rhythms. A voracious reader, she dives deep into literature, using stories to influence her own hardcore writing. Her spirited advocacy for alcohol isn’t about mere indulgence, but about celebrating life’s poignant moments.
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