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EBRD finances trams, tracks, buses in Gdansk
€12 million loan puts increasing focus on Polish municipal sector
A €12 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to the Polish city of Gdansk will promote economic development by improving public transportation, while relieving traffic congestion and cutting pollution. The project is key to the EBRD's strategy of investing in Polish municipalities as part of Poland's preparation for EU accession.
The investment will go towards buying new buses, refurbishing trams, rehabilitating key sections of tram track and introducing electronic ticketing. It will be a direct municipal loan, without sovereign or commercial-bank guarantees, a financing mechanism that is particular to the EBRD.
The project, which was prepared through significant technical cooperation funds from the European Union's Phare facility, will also support a programme to improve the financial planning and management of Gdansk's Municipal Transport Company, ZKM, as well as that of the city itself. The programme is designed to improve the creditworthiness of the city.
The project highlights the EBRD's growing investment in Poland's municipal sector. The EBRD has already committed about €150 million in six municipal and environmental infrastructure projects across Poland. Besides Gdansk, the Bank has signed urban transport projects in Krakow and Wroclaw, and a similar project is under way for Sopot. New projects are under consideration for Poznan, Warsaw, Gliwice, Rybnik, Walbrzych, Lódz and Szczecin, and the Bank is considering investments in Poland's primary (A1) and secondary road networks.
"We are working closely with the Polish authorities to find ways the EBRD can continue to support Poland as it prepares for EU accession," said Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Vice President of the EBRD.
With a population of 460,000, Gdansk is the sixth-largest city in Poland and a regional economic centre for the north of the country. Robust economic growth in the last 10 years has spurred car ownership in Gdansk to 320 cars per 1,000 people, almost treble the number a decade ago. Developing Gdansk's transport sector should encourage people to use alternative means of transport to the car, and help alleviate traffic congestion. Traffic jams have become one of the city's main problems, and are hampering further development.
The project should reduce pollution by reducing traffic, bringing Poland more in line with the criteria for admission to the EU, whose technical cooperation funds will also support implementation.
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