English Section

EIB funds to help expand Warsaw metro

27.09.2019 07:50
The European Investment Bank (EIB) will lend Warsaw PLN 1.5 billion (EUR 350 million) for an expansion of the city’s metro network.
Warsaws Targówek Mieszkaniowy Line M2 metro station opened to the public in mid-September. Photo: Cybularny [CC0]
Warsaw's Targówek Mieszkaniowy Line M2 metro station opened to the public in mid-September. Photo: Cybularny [CC0]via Wikimedia Commons

The financing will come under a loan agreement signed by the bank’s Vice-President Vazil Hudak and Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski at City Hall on Thursday.

The money will primarily be spent to finance the construction of a 16.4-kilometre-long extension of the second line of the subway.

The funds mark a third major EIB loan for the development of Warsaw’s metro system. The bank said it in 2012 and 2013 financed the construction of the central section of the city’s second metro line and helped purchase subway trains.

The EIB’s Vazil Hudak, who oversees the bank’s operations in Poland, was quoted as saying: “We are delighted to finance the extension of the second metro line in Warsaw and to contribute to sustainable urban transport in Europe’s ninth largest capital city by population.”

Meanwhile, Warsaw’s Trzaskowski said that City Hall was “determined to invest in the quality of municipal infrastructure” amid efforts to develop “a modern and environmentally-friendly public transport system, including new metro stretches,” Poland’s PAP news agency reported.

In mid-September, three new metro stations—Szwedzka, Targówek Mieszkaniowy and Trocka—opened to the public in Warsaw’s northern Praga-Północ and Targówek neighbourhoods.

The city’s second metro line is scheduled to be completed in its entirety by 2023.

The European Investment Bank is a European Union financial institution that provides long-term loans to the bloc's member states.

(gs)

Source: PAP, eib.org