Jacek Biłas has been Managing Director of Knorr-Bremse Poland since 2004. This year, the company is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Jacek Biłas has spent his entire career working in Poland’s rail industry. We take a look at this exciting rail transportation market.
Mr. Biłas, what was the situation in Poland 25 years ago, when Knorr-Bremse Poland was first set up?
Back then, we Poles were living through exciting but also fraught times – the first few years after the fall of the Iron Curtain weren’t always easy. But once the EU accession negotiations started in 1997, our prospects become increasingly rosy: Very soon, our country would become a fully-fledged member of the European Union! This created a really positive atmosphere, which also affected the rail vehicle industry.
During this optimistic period, Knorr-Bremse Poland opened for business in Krakow in the fall of 1999. What was the company producing at this point?
The company was in the right place at just the right time. We immediately entered the market with a superprestigious project, supplying braking equipment for the new Metropolis railcars destined for the Warsaw metro system. For a brand-new operation, it was obviously a huge challenge to accelerate to top speed from standing. But at the same time, it also allowed us to show what we were capable of – top quality and reliable delivery. We were the newcomer bringing Western rail vehicle technology into the country, and Polish manufacturers benefited from our expertise. Not just because it allowed them to build better vehicles which cost less over their lifecycles, but also because Knorr-Bremse’s international experience proved invaluable when it came to getting their new vehicles approved for export projects. At the same time, we set up new maintenance structures, because the contract for the Metropolis braking equipment also included a longterm service agreement.
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After earning degrees from the Faculty of Transportation and Electrical Engineering at Cracow University of Technology and the University of Foreign Trade and International Finance in Warsaw, Jacek Biłas began his career managing a locomotive depot for Polish State Railways (PKP). After working in various positions for two Polish railcar manufacturers and then for Alstom, he joined Knorr-Bremse Poland in 2004 as Managing Director.
Why did it make such good sense to enter the Polish market at that point?
During the Communist era, the only work the government ever did on the country’s rail infrastructure were the bare essentials. And then, during the 1990s, other things – quite understandably – took precedence over the rail network. But little by little, politicians started to take the decisions needed to clear the investment backlog. They tackled the task of expanding the major transit routes, especially those running through Poznan and Warsaw. Lots of lines were electrified and upgraded to support higher speeds – on many of them, the previous speed limit was just 80 km/h…
… and now Poland’s state rail operator Polskie Koleje Państwowe (PKP) has been running high-speed trains since 2014…
… exactly – so just last year, the government gave the go-ahead to purchase more than 100 new Pendolino multiple units, capable of running at speeds of up to 250 km/h. During test runs, the train actually accelerated to as much as 291 km/h – the highest speed ever recorded on Polish rail tracks!
So far, we’ve talked a lot about passenger rail. But Poland’s rail freight sector is even more impressive.
That’s right. Around 79,000 freight cars are running on our rail network. Poland is the second largest freight market in Europe, after Germany but before France. Of the 62 billion tonne-kilometers traveled in 2022, international freight transportation accounted for 31 percent. And at 22 percent, rail freight’s “modal share” is significantly higher than the European average of 18 percent. We’re expecting this share to increase, primarily as a result of several construction projects on the Baltic coast, where ports are building new freight terminals.
It almost sounds as if you’ve achieved all you could possibly want.
Well, as far as Knorr-Bremse Poland is concerned, we’re quite close to reaching this desirable state of affairs! We’re now firmly established in the marketplace, and our braking systems enjoy a market share of over 90 percent. We’re supplying our customers with almost everything which the Knorr-Bremse portfolio has to offer. It’s also become clear that the Polish market is very open to digital solutions. Our employees speak the same language as our Polish customers and are thoroughly familiar with the local culture and customs. And we’re still growing: Just last fall, we opened a new production and service facility in Rzeszow. This means we can respond to our Polish customers even faster than before.
What are your hopes for the Polish market as a whole?
The investments made in Poland’s rail network over the last few years have been the right ones, and they’re highly visible. But it’s really important not to lose momentum. Poland’s inter-regional roads in particular are in very good condition, putting rail transportation at a disadvantage. That’s why I’d like to see us making faster progress in upgrading lines for higher-speed trains. In the freight sector in particular, we’re still lagging well behind the average speeds found across the rest of Europe.
