Port Polska opens tender for rail tunnel and airport station

Port Polska has launched a milestone tender covering the railway tunnel and underground station that will connect Poland’s planned new national airport with the country’s emerging high speed network, marking a decisive step from design work to large scale construction.

A central link in Poland’s Port Polska megaproject

Publicly available information on the Central Communication Port program, now branded Port Polska, indicates that the new airport between Warsaw and Łódź is being conceived as the core of an integrated national transport system built around high speed rail. The newly launched tender for a railway tunnel and station beneath the airport is presented as one of the program’s most technically complex components, intended to place long distance and regional trains directly under the passenger terminal.

Plans for the wider Port Polska rail network describe a Y shaped high speed corridor linking Warsaw, the new airport and Łódź, with onward branches toward Wrocław and Poznań. In this structure, the airport rail station is expected to function as an interchange where airport traffic, domestic intercity passengers and regional services converge in one underground hub.

According to published coverage of the project, previous tender rounds concentrated on surface rail sections and preparatory works in Łódź, including what is set to become the country’s longest railway tunnel in the city center. The new procedure beneath the airport shifts the focus to the core node of the network, where aviation and rail infrastructure must be dovetailed within a tightly planned footprint.

Project documentation available to the public underlines that integrating the station below the airport is also intended to free land at ground level, allowing road and rail approaches to be placed underground and creating more space for commercial and public areas on the surface.

Tender scope: tunnel, station box and rail systems

Information released by the project promoter outlines a broad scope for the tender package, covering the bored or cut and cover tunnel sections leading into the airport area, the underground station box and platform structures, and the rail systems needed to bring high speed and conventional services into operation. The contractor or consortium to be selected will be responsible for structural works, track, power supply and core railway systems in a single coordinated contract.

Industry reports on earlier engineering studies for Port Polska indicate that the tunnel approaches will need to accommodate trains designed for speeds well above conventional Polish main lines, even if operating speeds through the station area are lower. This has implications for tunnel geometry, track slab design and vibration control beneath sensitive airport facilities.

In addition to the station and mainline bore, the tender documents are expected to include cross passages, evacuation routes and technical galleries for cables and utilities. Specialists following the project note that the tunnel must also interface with landside road tunnels and service corridors, increasing the importance of detailed phasing and coordination between rail and airport contractors.

Publicly available program timelines foresee that the new airport, its rail station and the initial high speed link between Warsaw and Łódź should open within the same time window, which places additional pressure on ensuring that tunnel and station works proceed without delay once the contract is awarded.

Strategic impact on travel times and connectivity

According to planning material published for the Central Communication Port concept, the underground station beneath the terminal is designed to reduce travel times between the airport and Poland’s major cities to levels intended to compete with domestic air travel. Illustrative figures cited in these materials include an anticipated rail journey of around 15 minutes from the airport to central Warsaw and roughly 25 minutes to Łódź.

By bringing long distance trains directly under the terminal, the project aims to allow passengers from cities such as Wrocław, Poznań, Kraków and the Tricity area to transfer between rail and air in one location, rather than relying on connecting flights. Transport analysts quoted in regional coverage of the scheme suggest this could reshape domestic travel patterns by making rail the preferred mode for feeder traffic into the new hub.

For Łódź and the surrounding region, the tunnel and airport connection are presented as part of a wider regeneration strategy. The existing construction contract for the high speed tunnel under Łódź and the new tender beneath the airport together form the central spine of what is envisioned as a fast corridor linking the two metropolitan areas and the new airport platform.

The station below the terminal is also intended to serve non airport demand, operating as a through station on the high speed network rather than a terminal spur. This would allow trains to run across the country via the airport node, providing additional capacity and route options beyond the immediate air travel market.

Engineering challenges beneath an active airport build

Engineering papers and conference presentations discussing the Port Polska program highlight the technical challenges of driving rail infrastructure beneath a large greenfield airport site that will be constructed in parallel. The tendered works will have to be sequenced so that excavation, tunnelling and structural tasks do not interfere with the schedule for above ground terminal and runway development.

Geotechnical assessments in the public domain describe a mix of soils and groundwater conditions in the area between Warsaw and Łódź, requiring careful choice of tunnelling methods and ground improvement techniques. Designers have drawn comparisons with other European hub projects where high speed rail lines pass directly under airport terminals, noting that tight settlement control is essential to protect both rail infrastructure and the overlying buildings.

Safety and operational resilience are also key considerations. The tender is expected to demand compliance with European interoperability standards for high speed and conventional rail, as well as detailed fire safety and evacuation concepts for the underground station. Integrating modern signalling and train control with the physical tunnel and station design is seen as critical to achieving the target headways and journey times.

Given the scale of the overall Port Polska investment, procurement experts observing the process note that the tunnel and station tender beneath the airport will likely attract interest from international consortia with experience in large underground rail hubs, potentially combining Polish contractors with major European or Asian partners.

Next steps in the Port Polska delivery schedule

According to recent summaries of the program’s progress, Port Polska and its rail implementing company have already advanced a series of tenders for mainline earthworks, viaducts and tunnelling on line sections leading toward the new airport. The launch of the underground station and tunnel tender is being interpreted by transport analysts as a sign that the project is moving into a more intensive construction phase.

The tender procedure is expected to follow the competitive dialogue and multi stage evaluation formats that have been used on earlier Port Polska contracts. These formats are intended to allow bidders to propose technical solutions within a defined framework, while enabling the contracting authority to refine requirements during the process.

Public documents related to the national rail investment plan emphasize that the airport tunnel and station contract must align with electrification, signalling and telecoms tenders issued for the Warsaw Łódź high speed route. Synchronizing these complex packages is regarded as essential to meeting the publicly stated objective of opening the first high speed line and the new airport within the same timeframe.

For travelers, the tender does not bring immediate changes, but it signals that the subterranean backbone of the future hub airport is now moving from drawings to procurement. As contracts are awarded and works begin on site, the rail tunnel and station beneath Port Polska’s new terminal will become a visible test of Poland’s ambition to build a nationally integrated, rail anchored air gateway.