Difficulties on the Zakopane road in Gaj near Kraków (Lesser Poland Voivodeship). Residents of the Mogilany commune are blocking the route in both directions in protest against the construction of a new Kraków-Myślenice railway route. Traffic is directed by the police, vehicles are allowed to pass every 10 minutes. The protest is scheduled to last until 1 p.m.
According to the police, the protest involves residents crossing the pedestrian crossing located at the intersection of Myślenicka Street with Wąwozowa and Klimkówka Streets on national road number 7.
Detours have been designated for drivers traveling on this route.
“The Route of Human Wrongs”
Protesting residents of the Mogilany commune do not agree that the planned Kraków-Myślenice railway route runs near their homes. They call the planned line “the route of human wrongs”. They talk about demolitions, divided towns, flood threats and a train that would pass almost under the windows. As they say, the route is to start on the outskirts of Krakow – in Swoszowice – and end in the center of Myślenice.
“This is not the time and this is not the place for a railway”
The mayor of the Mogilany commune said that the most important thing for his commune is road infrastructure and the construction of a sewage system.
– In the commune of Mogilany itself, we have 28 unasphalted streets, the entire western part of the commune has no sewage system, so we believe that the railway is not the right time and this is not the place, because we, as local government officials, have never applied for this railway, it is not true that the railway will be a development for the commune, development for the commune (…) 58 people will travel by train on average per train, so that is one and a half buses, and approximately 1,200 residents will be affected – argued Mateusz Paszta.
The protest is expected to last until 1 p.m. Due to the fact that the ski season is starting in the Tatra Mountains – the resorts in Białka Tatrzańska, Bukowina Tatrzańska and Zakopane have announced the opening of the slopes from today, which means that huge traffic jams may occur in Zakopane.
Main photo source: TVN24