Central Communication Port – government plan. Politicians comment

Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday he announced that the Central Communication Port project will be continued, but in a “more realistic” formula. – Poland will become one large megalopolis, which means that all large cities in Poland will be involved in this modern communication project – assured the head of government.

A central airport is to be built in Baranów near Warsaw, railway lines connecting the largest cities, as well as the high-speed rail “Y” line from Warsaw, through Łódź to Wrocław and Poznań. The new airport is to be launched in 2032. The estimated cost of building the domestic airport in Baranów, together with accompanying investments, i.e. connecting the port to public roads and implementing high-speed rail, is PLN 131 billion by 2032 – informed the government's plenipotentiary for CPK Maciej Lasek. He added that PLN 80 billion is the cost of building the “Y” line, which is to be completed by the mid-2030s.

Read more: CPK in a new way. Tusk explains >>>

This matter was discussed in the “Kawa na ławę” program on TVN24 by politicians – Agnieszka Pomaska ​​from the Civic Coalition, MEP PSL Krzysztof HetmanMEP PIS Tobiasz Bocheński, Tomasz Trela ​​from the Left Club, Przemysław Wipler from Konfederacja and Łukasz Rzepecki from the Chancellery of the President.

– We said from the beginning that this project requires realignment and review of current and planned expenses – said Agnieszka Pomaska. She added that “this project will no longer be built on human harm, as PiS tried to do, (…), we are done building anything on human harm.”

– The airport will be built on terms that are profitable for all of us, there will be no wasted money, (…), hence the concept of putting a strong emphasis on high-speed railways – she continued.

As the KO MP pointed out, “making this project a reality also means the end of blocking investments in the development of regional airports, these elements are also very important.”

Tobiasz Bocheński also commented on the spawa. – We welcome with satisfaction the change of mind by Donald Tusk and the ruling coalition. First they changed their mind about defending the border, and now they are defending the border just like us, now they are building it Central Communication Port – he said.

At the same time, he added that “the projects prepared by PiS are being cut.” – What worries us is that this will be a definitely limited project – he said.

– We will definitely implement CPK investments, i.e. everything that is proposed by the government and will be implemented as part of this project, but we will also return to the original concept, taking into account the development of all regions of the country, and not as it is now – declared the politician PiS.

– Personally, I am convinced about this project, because we have given up on the spokes that divided society, because in every part of the country there were groups that were dissatisfied with it – this is how Tomasz Trela ​​from the Left Club commented on the CPK issue.

He was also asked about the justification for expanding the airport in Warsaw's Okęcie, since the main communication center is to be the airport in Baranów. – I cannot imagine a country of 40 million, with a proud capital in Warsaw, that does not have its own aviation center. Baranów, with all due respect, is not Warsaw. I believe that for our country, which is proudly developing, there is room for both Okęcie and Baranów – he said.

– As the Left, we will postulate that as part of this large project, we should not omit these stations and conventional railways to smaller cities and towns. We should develop in such a way that both large agglomerations and smaller centers can develop – he added.

Krzysztof Hetman said that “this government does not cross out projects, does not terminate agreements thoughtlessly”. – It was known from the very beginning that this project would go beyond one term – he added and stated that during the PiS government, the then rulers did not inform the opposition about the assumptions of this project.

– We did not have answers to basic questions, none of the opposition politicians took it seriously at that time, so we had no basis to rationally evaluate this project, now we had a chance to do so for six months – he pointed out. He added that “the project had to be made more realistic and some corrections had to be made.” He also said that when it comes to communicating the assumptions of this project, “normality has now arrived.”

Przemysław Wipler drew attention to communication inconveniences between large cities. – The fact that after 30 years of free Poland we do not have a decent travel time between Łódź and Warsaw is a scandal – he said.

– When it comes to the change in the position of the ruling coalition regarding the CPK, it is understandable. Simply put, the vast, overwhelming majority of Poles want such ambitious development projects as CPK. This pressure was and is noticeable, he added.

At the same time, he stated that “it has not been a long time since there has been such a phenomenon that a difficult, complicated logistics project, a very large investment, has such great support and has such a well-organized community, also in social media.”

Łukasz Rzepecki, a representative of the Chancellery of the President, also commented on the matter. – It is clear that Prime Minister Tusk overheard President Duda, and that's good. Mr. President Andrzej Duda Thanks to his efforts, he contributed to Prime Minister Tusk changing his mind and no longer saying that nothing will be built, but that “something” will be built. However, this “something” is definitely not enough, he said.

– The president is in favor of creating a CPK, a large logistics, transport and transhipment hub. We don't like the size of the CPK (according to current projects – ed.) – he continued, adding that the project, which was created under the PiS government, “was supposed to accommodate a larger number of seats”. He assessed that the actions taken by the current government are “a step in the right direction, but insufficient.”