PKP PLK Signs €706M Warsaw Station Modernisation Contract

WARSAW, POLAND – PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe (PKP PLK) has awarded Torpol a €706.4 million (PLN 3 billion) contract for the comprehensive modernisation of Warszawa Wschodnia (Warsaw East Station) and the adjacent Warszawa Stadion station. Works begin in December 2026 and will run through end-2029, with the tender originally carrying a €942 million (PLN 4 billion) budget ceiling when launched in August 2025.

What Is the Full Scope of This Project?

All seven platforms at Warsaw East Station will be demolished and rebuilt to standard height with full canopy coverage, while a new Local Traffic Control Centre equipped with digital train traffic management systems will be constructed on site. The project encompasses 46 km of railway track modernisation, 57 km of new overhead contact line installation, 170 new turnouts, and the reconstruction of seven railway viaducts—plus a new 1.6 km twin-track viaduct connecting to railway line no. 9 for improved flows toward Gdańsk, Olsztyn, and Legionowo.

Passenger circulation will be transformed through three rebuilt underpasses, a new pedestrian passage beneath platform 6, and a dedicated cycle path in the western tunnel. The station will receive 14 lifts and seven pairs of escalators. At Warszawa Stadion station, an additional platform will be added alongside a direct connection to the Stadion Narodowy M2 metro station, enabling sealed transfers between rail and metro. A tunnel beneath the tracks linking Kijowska and Żupnicza streets will reconnect the Praga Północ and Praga Południe districts—an element Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski described as “long-awaited.”

Key Project Data

How Does This Compare to Similar Projects?

The Warsaw East project follows the recently completed modernisation of Warszawa Zachodnia (Warsaw West Station) — Poland’s largest station rebuild to date — forming a sequential upgrade of the capital’s two principal rail gateways. Where Warszawa Zachodnia focused on decongesting east-west cross-city throughput, the Wschodnia investment addresses the northern corridor bottleneck via the new 1.6 km viaduct to line no. 9, a structural intervention absent from the Zachodnia scope. The combined effect positions Warsaw’s railway node for the planned reconstruction of the cross-city line through central Warsaw, which PKP PLK has been preparing through parallel upgrades at Warszawa Gdańska and Warszawa Centralna.

At €706 million for a multi-platform station with 46 km of track and a new traffic control centre, the Warsaw East contract sits in the upper tier of Central European station modernisation programmes but remains markedly below comparable Western European projects. Stuttgart 21, for example, carries an estimated cost exceeding €11 billion for a single through-station reconfiguration, while Vienna Hauptbahnhof was delivered at approximately €1 billion — albeit for a full new-build rather than a rebuild. The below-budget award (€706 million against a €942 million ceiling) suggests competitive bidding dynamics in Poland’s contracting market. Note: The specific signalling and traffic management system integrator for the Local Traffic Control Centre was not disclosed in the contract announcement. (Source: PKP PLK, 2026; Deutsche Bahn AG Stuttgart 21 project data; ÖBB Infrastruktur AG Vienna Hauptbahnhof data)

Editor’s Analysis

PKP PLK’s decision to award the contract 25% below the tender ceiling — €706 million versus €942 million — signals both competitive pressure among Polish rail contractors and possible scope refinements during negotiation. The two-phase delivery strategy, isolating long-distance platforms first before switching to suburban infrastructure, has become PKP PLK’s standard playbook after applying a similar staged approach at Warszawa Zachodnia; it preserves revenue service on roughly half the station’s capacity throughout construction. The broader strategic takeaway is that this contract, combined with PKP PLK’s €1.2 billion in recent six-month project signings, confirms Poland is currently the most active rail infrastructure market in Central Europe by contract volume, a position reinforced by the Poland railway signalling market’s projected growth trajectory driven by industrial Ethernet adoption, PoE-enabled traffic management, and cloud platform integration from suppliers including Siemens AG, Hirschmann, Moxa, Rockwell Automation, Cisco Systems, and Advantech. (Source: IndexBox, 2025; PKP PLK, 2026)

FAQ

Q: Will Warsaw East Station remain open during the modernisation works?
A: PKP PLK plans a two-phase construction sequence — platforms 1–4 and long-distance infrastructure will be rebuilt first while platforms 5–7 remain operational for suburban services, then the roles will reverse. Exact service reductions during each phase have not been confirmed by the operator as of publication.

Q: How does the new 1.6 km viaduct change operations at Warsaw East?
A: The twin-track viaduct creates a grade-separated connection to railway line no. 9, eliminating at-grade conflicts between trains heading toward Gdańsk, Olsztyn, and Legionowo and other traffic flows through the station throat. This removes a long-standing capacity constraint at the northern approach to the Warsaw railway hub.

Q: What happens at Warszawa Stadion station as part of this project?
A: Warszawa Stadion will receive an additional platform and a direct pedestrian link to the Stadion Narodowy metro station on line M2, enabling passengers to transfer between regional rail and the metro without exiting the paid area. This interconnection is the first of its kind on the Warsaw cross-city corridor.