New trains bought for 250 million euros to transport football fans to the gates of Warsaw’s new National Stadium during Euro 2012 in Poland will not fit into existing tunnels, according to Polskie Radio. Little did the regional Warsaw rail Koleje Mazowieckie know when they were handing over a quarter billion euros on 37 luxury trains, supposed to be providing shuttle service between central Warsaw and the National Stadium located across the river from the city centre, that the new coaches were too tall to negotiate the tunnel running under the capital’s streets, the Fakt tabloid claims.
National train company PKP points the finger at its regional counterpart.
"It was Koleje Mazowieckie who bought the oversized trains. They knew from the very beginning that double-decker coaches could not negotiate the tunnels", says Marta Szklarek, spokeswoman of the Warsaw branch of PKP replied to the allegations.
Transportation infrastructure seems to be the country’s main weakness before the forthcoming Euro 2012 event to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The news of the oversized trains for the football event comes only a month after the media revelations that Poland had blown its chances of completion of the final section of the A2 motorway, linking Warsaw with the German border.
