PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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describes Polish transport sector trends from 1990-1998, the following key statistics are
notable:
?? the dramatic, 70% increase in the number of road vehicles,
?? the fact that road transport now accounts for 80% of cargo by weight and for 40% of
ton-km, the 50% fall in passenger rail transport,
?? the two-thirds increase of airport traffic, the increase of border traffic resulting in
about 270 million people crossing the borders in 1997,
?? rising numbers of accidents resulting in about 7000 fatalities a year, and finally,
?? the substantial deterioration of the road network over the last decade due to limited
funds from the state budget.
With regard to the road network, the profile section (p.7ff) then also points to the
lack of a developed, limited access expressway network as well as the fact that at present,
less than 50% of Polish roads are even adjusted to axle loads of 100 kN, while the EU
standards is 115 kN. With regard to the rail sector, only about 60% of the lines are in
good or very good condition, and many lines have reserve capacity. The following
sections on medium term “strategic aims for transport infrastructure development” and on
the “method of selection of projects to be co-financed by ISPA” prepare the way for the
concrete suggestions presented in the final sections. Besides basic compliance with
formal requirements concerning maturity and size of the projects and other elements of
the EU’s ISPA regulation, the document takes particular care to assure compliance with
the preference for Helsinki Corridor location, although the authors of the document,
writing in somewhat twisted, non-native sentence constructions, still clearly attempt to
keep the door open for other projects:
During the selection of projects in Poland, it has been taken into account that the
projects put forward for ISPA financing must be situated on the main routes of
international importance, which after the accession to the EU will become the part of
TENs. The list of these routes for all the candidate countries, identified as the ‘TINA
network’, have been agreed by all the involved countries and approved by the
European Commission. The basic components of this network are the connections