In accordance with the Act of 16 December 2010 on Public Collective Transport, the voivodeship is responsible for organising public collective transport. The Łódź Voivodeship Strategy 2030 (ŁŁ 2030 Strategy) as the most important document of local government defining the objectives of regional policy in the economic, social and spatial dimensions defines the actions necessary to achieve them. In the WŁ 2030 Strategy, the lines of action for achieving operational objective 3.3 ‘Increasing transport accessibility’ are set out in paragraph . 3.3.2 "Inclusion in the system of high-speed rail connections and increasing the railway accessibility of the voivodship, inter alia, by: development of key elements of the railway system, including support for improvement of technical parameters of existing railway lines and construction of new railway lines, e.g. Bełchatów – Wieluń, construction of point infrastructure, e.g. railway stations and stops and road-rail crossings, including the implementation of collision-free solutions. The project will allow the creation of a well-functioning, attractive and accessible public transport, constituting a real competition against individual road transport, which will allow to increase the share of rail travel in the total number of journeys. This was reflected in the ‘Programme Contract for the Łódzkie Region’, which included the following projects among the list of priority projects: ‘Construction of the line connecting Bełchatów with line No 131’ and ‘Construction of new and modernisation of existing railway stops in the Łódź Voivodeship’. The above has been approved by the European Commission, where the FEŁ2027 provides support for the above-mentioned railway investments. The implementation of the objectives contained in the WŁ 2030 Strategy was also achieved by obtaining funding for two railway investments from the Railway+ Programme by the Łódź Voivodeship: ‘Construction of a line linking railway line No 131 (Chorzew Siemkowice) with railway line No 181 (Wieluń)’ and ‘Modernisation and electrification of railway line No 24 on the Piotrków Trybunalski – Bełchatów section with extension to Bogumiłowo’. The implementation of railway projects under the Rail+ and FEŁ2027 projects will allow the implementation of the directions of intervention indicated in the WŁ 2030 Strategy and the elimination of transport exclusion in the south-western part of Łódź. Thanks to the implementation of the three above-mentioned projects, a new transport route will be created in the Łódź Voivodeship connecting Piotrków Trybunalski – Bełchatów – Wieluń – Wieruszów. Cities i.e. Bełchatów, Wieluń and Wieruszów will gain a direct passenger rail connection to the capital of the Łódź region and access to the international rail transport corridor Baltic-Adriatic. This will have a positive impact on the development of the regional network of collective public transport connections and its addition to rail connections for towns that do not yet have access to passenger rail, and thus on improving the internal transport and socio-economic cohesion of the region. There will be an increase in the availability of passenger transport in the area of the Łódzkie Voivodeship by creating a safe, reliable, environmentally friendly efficient public transport network. The action of the Provincial Government in this area will contribute to the increase in the mobility of residents and the activation of the labour market and the development of local enterprises. In order to implement the project: On 16 October 2023, the Łódzkie Province signed a Letter of Intent with the national railway infrastructure manager PKP PLK S.A. on cooperation and cooperation in the development of railway infrastructure of regional importance in the Łódzkie Province in 2021-2027. According to the above. In the letter of intent, the Łódzkie Voivodeship undertook to prepare the preparatory documentation on its own, which will enable PKP PLK S.A. to apply for co-financing from the FEŁ2027 and to proceed with the construction of a new line.
