“Acquiring this safety certificate for Polish railways entails a rather complicated procedure. Our company Advanced World Transport a. s. succeeded in meeting all the requirements of the relevant Polish authorities as the first ever carrier based outside Poland to do so,” said Edin Sose, AWT’s Chief Commercial Officer.
AWT already operates in Poland as a forwarder – securing transport through local partners and local employees. Several months ago, AWT established its subsidiary in Poland, AWT Rail PL, whose Czech-Polish team boasts extensive experience and thorough knowledge of the Polish freight rail and intermodal transport markets, as well as of Polish heavy industry. AWT Rail PL also offers forwarding services. However, it is only now, with the new licence having been secured, that AWT will be able to commence operating its own rail transport, once the safety certificate has been issued.
“In combination with AWT Rail PL, we are now entering a market with a size and potential which far exceeds that of the space in which we have been operating so far. We intend to offer our services to local industrial businesses, energy companies, steelmakers and businesses in the chemical and automotive industries. We are confident of achieving success with the application of our experience, particularly in the field of cross-border transport,” added Jana Vládková, Chairwoman of the Board at AWT Rail PL.
AWT will use both electric and diesel-electric locomotives, with only Polish drivers at the controls for the time being. The objective of a training programme that will take place in the coming months will be to turn out our own engine drivers who will be competent in driving trains both in the Czech Republic and Poland. In the immediate future, AWT will focus mainly on short cross-border journeys within the region of Silesia.
The Polish rail transport market is approximately three times the size of its Czech counterpart. According to official statistical data, some 204 million tonnes of material were transported via the Polish rail network in 2011, while in the Czech Republic it was slightly above 80 million tonnes. When the distances travelled were counted in, the Polish market reached 51 billion tonne-kilometres, compared to 14 billion tonne-kilometres for the Czech market. In terms of transport, Poland is a country of strategic value, both for transit routes running between Eastern and Western European countries, and for key local sea ports and cargo shipments that are transported southwards from the north of Europe.
An example of such cross-border transport provision is AWT’s shipments of iron ore from the Omarska mine in Bosnia, run locally by ArcelorMittal Prijedor, to the Polish cities of Krakow and Dąbrowa Górnicza, and to the ArcelorMittal plant in the Czech city of Ostrava. The shipments have been secured by AWT since March this year.
In addition to its Polish subsidiary AWT Rail PL, AWT also operates a subsidiary in Slovakia (AWT Rail SK) and a subsidiary in Hungary (AWT Rail HU).
