Handover of the newly constructed railway line Krakow – Zakopane to PKP PLK S.A. for use

December 18, 2023

On December 12, 2014, during a brief ceremony at the Zembrzyce Nowe railway station platform, the investor – the Regional Water Management Board in Krakow, and the contractor – handed over to PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. the newly constructed section of the Kraków – Zakopane railway line, supervised by the Consortium of companies ECM Group Polska S.A (Consortium Leader) and Ingeneria IDOM Internacional (Consortium Partner).

With the participation of the President of the National Water Management Board, Mr. Witold Sumisławski, and in the presence of Mr. Józef Lassota, Member of the Polish Parliament and Chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Małopolska, and Mr. Jacek Krupa, Member of the Board of the Małopolskie Voivodeship, a blue ribbon symbolizing the completed investment was cut during a ride along the newly opened route between Sucha Beskidzka and Stryszów – Sucha Beskidzka.

After the ceremony, the guests participated in a press conference at the castle in Sucha Beskidzka. They answered numerous questions from the media, including Mr. Witold Sumisławski, President of the National Water Management Board; Ms. Małgorzata Owsiany, Director of the Regional Water Management Board in Krakow; Mr. Józefa Majerczak, Director and Member of the Board of PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A.; Mr. Sławomir Cebo, Director of the Engineering Construction Division at SKANSKA; and Mr. Stefan Sawicki, Deputy Director of the Regional Water Management Board in Krakow.

The railway line Stryszów – Zembrzyce is another part of one of the largest Polish investments – the reservoir and dam in Świnna-Poręba – and a section of the Kraków – Zakopane railway line. The total cost of the completed works was 514.4 million PLN, which represents almost a quarter of the entire amount allocated for the construction of the reservoir and dam, along with associated investments.

To construct it, it was necessary to create and encase a hydrotechnical embankment on the future reservoir’s bed (over 2 million cubic meters of aggregate), the width and curvature of which meet the requirements for train speed. The massive embankment also serves as a geological buttress, effectively supporting 23 out of 74 landslides recorded in the vicinity of the future reservoir. Two railway bridges were built on this short nine-kilometer section of the railway line. The larger of the two, a seven-span arched structure in Zembrzyce over the Skawa River, is the largest railway bridge currently under construction in Poland. Adjacent to the tracks, a road was also built, and in the town of Dąbrówka, a road bridge was constructed on it.

This section of tracks is a part of the shortest railway route from Krakow to Vienna. The section of the so-called transversal railway (from Latin “transversalis,” meaning crosswise) from Skawina to Sucha Beskidzka, measuring 45 kilometers and 577 meters in length, was opened almost exactly 130 years ago, on December 22, 1884.