Abstract
The process of electrification of the Polish railways took place from 1936 till early 1990s. Despite the political constraints of the post-war times, the decisions on electrification of particular sections of the railway network were usually based on economic factors. In 1970s and 1980s so called electrification thresholds were used to justify the need for electrification of railway line in question. They took into the number of tracks (single-track lines, double-track lines), terrain conditions (flat terrain, upland terrain) and the traffic structure (the share of passenger traffic) into account. In the framework of National Railway Program till 2023 (KPK) the realization of electrification projects have been undertaken again. The present paper deals with importance of the operational criteria in the decision-making concerning justification of electrification of railway lines. These criteria include the shortening of the journey times on particular sections, shortening of stops on the stations with the change of the type of traction, the savings of train operating companies resulting from the traction unification (change of demand for rolling stock and for workshops for its servicing), improvement of reliability and punctuality of services.
Highlights
Electrification of the Polish mainline railways started in the years 1936-1937 with the wiring of three line sections in the Warsaw Railway Node
Despite the political constraints of the times after World War II, the decisions on electrification of particular sections of the railway network were usually based on economic factors
Called electrification thresholds were used to justify the need for electrification of railway line in question. They took into the number of tracks, terrain conditions and the traffic structure into account
Summary
Electrification of the Polish mainline railways started in the years 1936-1937 with the wiring of three line sections in the Warsaw Railway Node. Called electrification thresholds were used to justify the need for electrification of railway line in question They took into the number of tracks (single-track lines, double-track lines), terrain conditions (flat terrain, upland terrain) and the traffic structure (the share of passenger traffic) into account. According to the Annual Report of PKP PLK for the year 2016, the length of electrified railway lines is 11826 km, while the total length of railways in operation is 18427 km [1]. The current shape of electrification in Poland cannot be treated as optimal, mainly due to the missing electrification of some parts of routes, important for passenger and/or freight transport These missing links are “bottlenecks” in the railway network. They are in the planning process, including elaboration of feasibility studies for particular projects (Table 2 and Fig.2)
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