Czech train operator Gepard Express has applied to run international services through Poland, joining two of its domestic rivals in competing with Polish state rail operator PKP.
More passengers are using Polish trains than ever before, with a record 68 million traveling on the national rail company’s services in 2023 - 8 million more than the previous year.
Passenger numbers are expected to rise to 70 million in 2024, according to forecasts by PKP.
To comply with EU guidelines, the carrier’s trains have to share the rails with international competitors, with the Germans and the Czechs the first to have taken up the challenge.
Gepard Express, a niche company based in Brno - the Czech Republic’s second-largest city and a major train intersection - announced this week that it has applied to carry passengers on several routes through Poland.
These include journeys from Prague to Vilnius in Lithuania, from the Czech capital to Kyiv in Ukraine, and from Prague to Terespol on the Polish-Belarusian border.
Gepard Express also wants to operate two routes from Split on the Croatian coast to Vilnius and Berlin.
All the routes, which Gepard Express wants to operate from December 2025, would stop at Polish cities along the way.
The ambitious company, which in 2023 owned two train locomotives, will compete in Poland with two other Czech train carriers: Leo Express from Prague and Brno-based Regiojet. According to EMIS, which provides information on emerging markets companies, Gepard Express Sp. zo.o., its Polish subsidiary, had share capital of 6,000 zlotys (€1,400) when founded in April 2023.
Getting permission for the routes through Poland requires patience. According to railway news site Rynek Kolejowy, Regiojet complained of having to wait over 550 days for the right to run four trains from Poland’s Kraków to the city of Gdynia on the country’s Baltic Sea coast.
Regiojet said PKP’s bid to operate the same routes was confirmed in half the time.
Regiojet is buying locomotives and carriages for the routes in Poland from the Pesa train builder, based in the northwestern Polish city of Bydgoszcz, for an amount analysts put at around €120 million.
The aim of allowing competition on rail networks is to make costs more competitive for passengers, with German intercity travel prices being the benchmark for Regiojet.
Passenger numbers are expected to rise to 70 million in 2024, according to forecasts by PKP.
To comply with EU guidelines, the carrier’s trains have to share the rails with international competitors, with the Germans and the Czechs the first to have taken up the challenge.
Gepard Express, a niche company based in Brno - the Czech Republic’s second-largest city and a major train intersection - announced this week that it has applied to carry passengers on several routes through Poland.
These include journeys from Prague to Vilnius in Lithuania, from the Czech capital to Kyiv in Ukraine, and from Prague to Terespol on the Polish-Belarusian border.
Gepard Express also wants to operate two routes from Split on the Croatian coast to Vilnius and Berlin.
All the routes, which Gepard Express wants to operate from December 2025, would stop at Polish cities along the way.
The ambitious company, which in 2023 owned two train locomotives, will compete in Poland with two other Czech train carriers: Leo Express from Prague and Brno-based Regiojet. According to EMIS, which provides information on emerging markets companies, Gepard Express Sp. zo.o., its Polish subsidiary, had share capital of 6,000 zlotys (€1,400) when founded in April 2023.
Getting permission for the routes through Poland requires patience. According to railway news site Rynek Kolejowy, Regiojet complained of having to wait over 550 days for the right to run four trains from Poland’s Kraków to the city of Gdynia on the country’s Baltic Sea coast.
Regiojet said PKP’s bid to operate the same routes was confirmed in half the time.
Regiojet is buying locomotives and carriages for the routes in Poland from the Pesa train builder, based in the northwestern Polish city of Bydgoszcz, for an amount analysts put at around €120 million.
The aim of allowing competition on rail networks is to make costs more competitive for passengers, with German intercity travel prices being the benchmark for Regiojet.
Source: TVP WORLD, PAP, Rynek Kolejowy
