On Friday 22 September 2006, in Warsaw, SYSTRA signed a contract worth 7.9 million euros with the Polish National Railways PKP for the upgrading of a 58km section of the E59 corridor between Wroclaw and Rawicz. The route, which runs north-south, providing access to the Baltic, is considered high priority.

During the project, which is due to last 13 months, SYSTRA will have to come up with solutions to increase the speed of passenger trains to 160kph and to get freight trains up to 120kph.

"This project is highly important, because it’s part of the whole process of upgrading European rail networks", said Philippe Citroën, managing director of SYSTRA, who was in Warsaw for the signing of the contract.

In all, Poland plans to modernise 453 km of line between Swinoujscie on the Baltic and Wroclaw, with the aim of improving links between Scandinavia and Central Europe. 85% of the funding for the project will come from the EU Cohesion Fund and 15% from the Polish government.

Since the early nineties, SYSTRA has confirmed its presence on the Polish market. The company was commissioned to take charge of the restructuring of the public transport system in Gdansk and the transposition of the European directives on rail transport. Another contract is currently under way to supervise works on the upgrading of the E20 corridor (Siedlce–Terespol section). SYSTRA are partners in a consortium with Safege.

It is SYSTRA’s ambition to be a major player in the market for Polish railway engineering contracts. To achieve this, it has opened a Polish subsidiary, based in Warsaw, to handle new business in both urban and rail transport sectors.