Thanks to KD, the region became a national pioneer in the revitalization and restoration of railway services on lines closed at the turn of the century.
To this day, the Lower Silesian regional government has consistently been the only one in Poland to take over railway lines on such a large scale, revitalize them and restore passenger train services.

The line from Wrocław to Trzebnica, on which Koleje Dolnośląskie trains ran for the first time in 2009, was the first investment of this kind financed by a marshal’s office anywhere in Poland. Koleje Dolnośląskie, subordinate to the Marshal’s Office of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, was the first railway company established from scratch and managed by regional governments in Poland.

Railway: a remedy for traffic jams

In 2009, the S5 expressway did not yet exist, and driving from Trzebnica to Wrocław often took more than an hour.

“The Wrocław–Trzebnica–Wrocław connection proved to be a great success. It is now operated by three-car hybrid trains, but at the beginning, to meet passenger demand, it was necessary to couple two diesel vehicles,” says Wojciech Zdanowski, vice-president of Koleje Dolnośląskie, who at the time worked at the UMWD and was responsible, among other things, for launching this connection.

The connection is still operated by the regional carrier, and on the section between Wrocław-Psie Pole and Trzebnica stations, the train runs on tracks built through the efforts of the UMWD. It was the first case in Poland in which a regional government coordinated a railway investment on its own, enabling the carrier to operate on a railway route that was not placed under the management of PKP PLK S.A.

“There is no region in Poland that invests in railway development as dynamically as Lower Silesia. Across the voivodeship, modern electric and hybrid trains operated by the regional carrier, Koleje Dolnośląskie, run on the routes. Our goal is to combat transport exclusion. As the regional government, we have taken over more than 300 km of railway lines that had been out of service for many years, and we are systematically revitalizing them. In this way, we are giving Lower Silesia’s residents daily access to rail,” says Cezary Przybylski, Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship.

More regional railway services

Since 2018 alone, the sections from Dzierżoniów to Bielawa and from Chojnów to Chocianów have been added to the lines under the regional government’s management that are open to passenger traffic. The Lower Silesian Roads and Railways Service will soon complete railway investments on the lines to Świeradów-Zdrój and Karpacz. Work is also underway on an investment connected with the line to Góra.

“In September, a bus in Koleje Dolnośląskie livery arrived in Góra, allowing residents to travel around Lower Silesia on a single ticket already. We are also planning an investment involving the construction of a railway line to Góra Śląska station, which will be the first electrified line revitalized by the Lower Silesian regional government,” says Tymoteusz Myrda, deputy marshal responsible, among other things, for railways in the region.

In total, more than 300 km of railway lines have come under the management of the Lower Silesian regional government. In September, an agreement was signed to transfer additional lines: from Jelenia Góra to Lwówek Śląski and from Kłodzko to Stronie Śląskie.

“In the latest ranking by the Transport Economics Association, passengers rated Lower Silesia as the voivodeship with the best railways in the country. As a regional government, we aim to ensure that every county capital in our region has a passenger connection and to restore passenger services on lines that were once closed,” says deputy marshal Krzysztof Maj.

Koleje Dolnośląskie are celebrating their 15th anniversary this year. In the first full year of their existence, when the railway line to Trzebnica was launched, they covered 870,000 kilometers. Today, trains in their yellow-and-white livery travel one million kilometers each month.

“Over five years, we have practically doubled the number of seats on our trains by ordering 25 Elf 2 trains, six hybrid vehicles and commissioning overhauls of SA109 rail buses. This year, we will cover a record 12 million kilometers. We will thereby become the second regional carrier in the country to cover more than one million kilometers in a month,” says Damian Stawikowski, president of Koleje Dolnośląskie.

More information about revitalized railway lines and Koleje Dolnośląskie statistics can be found on the company’s anniversary website.