PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe (PKP PLK) is the manager of Poland’s national rail network. It maintains and modernises the lines, draws up the timetable, controls traffic and sells train paths to passenger and freight operators.
PKP PLK is a joint-stock company established in 2001 within the PKP group. The State Treasury holds 69.88% of the shares, with ownership rights exercised by the Minister of State Assets. Piotr Wyborski has been president of the management board since March 2024.
At the end of 2024 the company managed 18,915 km of railway lines, 11,519 level crossings and 37,380 sets of points. More than 5,000 passenger and freight trains run on its network every day, operated by about 138 railway undertakings. PKP PLK had 35,836 employees at the end of 2025.
As infrastructure manager, PKP PLK charges operators for track access at rates approved by the President of the Office of Rail Transport (UTK). The condition of its lines and the pace of its works determine journey times for every passenger and freight operator in Poland.
Investment programme
PKP PLK delivers most of the National Railway Programme to 2030, with a perspective to 2032, adopted in August 2023 and updated in 2024 and 2025. The programme is worth PLN 170bn and draws on EU cohesion funds, the Connecting Europe Facility and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
The company’s tender plan for 2026 is PLN 9.5bn, against PLN 27bn in 2025. The 2025 plan was the largest in the company’s history.
On the Central Main Line (CMK) from the Warsaw area towards Kraków and Katowice, PKP PLK is replacing ETCS Level 1 with Level 2. Running at 250 km/h on about 190 km of the line is planned from December 2027.
Radio and security
PKP PLK has abandoned its original plan for nationwide GSM-R coverage. It now concentrates GSM-R on lines with ETCS Level 2, and after an extension in March 2026 the system covers about 1,500 km. The company also plans a test site for the successor system.
The network has become a target of sabotage. In November 2025 an explosive charge damaged the track on the Warsaw–Lublin line, an attack the Polish government attributes to Russian intelligence services.
Soldiers were deployed to guard railway lines after the attack. The authorities introduced the CHARLIE alert level for railway areas in November 2025 and extended it to the end of May 2026.