Some transporters may be left out in cold after rail freight licenses expire

The Transport Ministry has announced that the operating licenses of the 23 railway freight transporters present on the domestic market will soon expire. While the ministry has remained reticent about the future of nine of the transporters, whose future operations it will apparently decide on at a later date, seven transporters, including the Polish State Railways (PKP), have been guaranteed license renewals to continue rail freight operations, and the remaining seven are still waiting for a decision by the ministry on whether or not their licenses will be extended. New players entering the market as well as those currently operating as rail freight transporters may apply to the ministry for an operating license. Jadwiga Stachowska, a high-ranking official at the ministry, indicated that documents required to assess rail freight transporters' performance would have to be received before the end of February to determine which companies would be allowed to gain a license to continue operations in Poland. "If we don't receive them, then we will have to take tough measures," she said. (Puls Biznesu, p.6) J.K.