PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. will electrify the final section of the E 30 railway main line by the end of 2019. Travel time will be reduced because electric locomotives will no longer have to be replaced with diesel locomotives.
The electrification of the Węgliniec–Zgorzelec section is progressing as planned. The contractor began work in September 2018. Construction of the supporting structures has already been completed along the entire 27-kilometre route. Using a special machine, a pile driver, workers installed concrete piles and 920 poles. They also installed 54 so-called gantries—metal structures spanning several tracks to which the overhead line is attached.
In January, the contractor began constructing the overhead line. First, the so-called equipment is installed: hangers, insulators and components for attaching the wires. Later, special overhead-line trains will be used to suspend the catenary and contact wire. All the work requires heightened safety procedures because it will be carried out alongside trains travelling on the adjacent track.
To ensure an adequate power supply for the electrified section, the traction substation in Węgliniec has already been modernized. Two new substations are being built in Pieńsk and Zgorzelec.
The Węgliniec–Zgorzelec route is the last non-electrified section of the E 30 railway line, an international railway main line running from Zgorzelec through Bolesławiec, Legnica, Wrocław, Opole and Kraków to Przemyśl and the border with Ukraine. Once the work is complete, the entire route from the country’s western to its eastern border will be traversable using electric traction, without the need to change locomotives in Węgliniec.
Train travel times will be reduced and the line’s capacity increased. Passenger services will benefit from better conditions, both for regional and long-distance traffic. Freight traffic will also gain: cargo transport will become more efficient and faster, and therefore more competitive with road transport.
Transporting more freight by rail will relieve pressure on roads and improve safety.
All the work will be completed by the end of 2019. The total value of the “Electrification of railway lines nos. 274 and 278 on the Węgliniec–Zgorzelec section” project is PLN 70 million.