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Air
Poland has a number of international airports, that served over 14 million passengers in 2006. All the major Polish cities offer multiple direct flights to Warszawa and to some West European hubs. The biggest airport is the Okęcie - Fryderyk Chopin Airport in Warszawa, offering direct flights to 80 major destinations in Europe and North America. Currently the airport is being expanded to serve ca. 10 million passengers a year. In 2006 there were 128 foreign air routes to 35 countries from Poland.
Roads
A comparative shortcoming of the Polish road network is the low proportion of motorways and dual carriageways in the network. Poland’s road network ranks fourth in size in Europe, with a length of almost 300,000 kilometres, but lack of investment has delayed much-needed maintenance and repairs. One-third of Polish roads require a major overhaul, and the country lacks a sufficient network of motorways.
Despite the slow progress in past years there are hopes for a radical improvement of the situation. The governmental programme of motorway development involves the construction of a network of 2,900 kilometres over the next 10-15 years (currently, the network is only 500 kilometres long). It is one of the biggest public construction projects in recent years, requiring some USD 8–10 billion, and is to be financed by the government, the European Union, international financial institutions and a system of toll charges. However, a significant improvement of the situation can not be expected in less than 3-4 years' time.
Railroads
Poland has an extensive rail network of 24,000 kilometres. However, the network needs a major upgrading. The rail system is currently being modernized with financial assistance from the European Union. Top priorities include upgrading rolling stock, rail infrastructure, and making improvements in the signalling and telecommunications equipment.
Inland waterways
The Polish network of inland waterways amounts to 3640km, of which 1954km is navigable. Natural international connections with Western and Eastern Europe are possible.
Sea ports
Poland developed four major seaports: Gdańsk, Gdynia, Szczecin and Świnoujście. When compared to any of the north-western European ports, Polish seaports are at a competitive disadvantage because of their relatively poor location with respect to major transoceanic routes.
Railway transport dominates freight traffic to and from Polish seaports. All major ports have relatively good railway connections with the hinterland and further to neighbouring countries. Loaded and unloaded transit cargo in seaports reached a level of 12,734 tonnes in 2006.
The infrastructural projects carried out in the Polish ports, with significant support from the European funds (between 2007-2013 the major Polish ports on the Baltic sea can receive support from the Cohesion Fund and the European Regional Development Fund to an amount of approx. EUR 440 million), give Poland a chance of becoming a central element of the transport route connecting Northern and Western Europe with such countries as Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus and the Black Sea region. However, it would be impossible to connect these regions with an intermodal transport route without significant investment in the Polish road and railway networks.
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