Development of the Railway Rolling Stock Industry in Poland at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Century

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the development of production plants and modernisation of railway rolling stock in Poland. The transformations of enterprises manufacturing and repairing rolling stock in Poland at the turn of the 20th and 21st century and the volume of rolling stock production in the years 2001-2016 were analysed. Export of Polish rolling stock abroad was also discussed. Production, modernisation and repair of railway rolling stock in Poland was handled by several dozen plants, including those belonging to foreign concerns such as Stadler, Bombardier and Greenbier. The largest enterprises dealing in the production and modernisation of rolling stock with domestic capital in Poland at the beginning of the 21st century were Pesa and Newag, the HCP FPS was slightly less important. After the crisis at the turn of the 20th and 21st century resulting from the situation in PKP and the processes of economic transformation of the country, the rolling stock industry in Poland began to develop again. Poland’s accession to the EU and the opening of the rail market have had a major impact. However, large plants such as PaFaWag and Fablok have fallen. The number of rolling stock repair plants (old ZNTK) decreased significantly, some of them went bankrupt and some of them were restructured and in a few cases expanded their scope of activity.