Polish MPs are pushing an „access for access” rule in rail freight, arguing that Poland opens its tracks to Ukrainian operators while Ukraine keeps its own market closed to Polish carriers. The case centres on UZ Cargo Poland, a subsidiary of state-owned Ukrainian Railways whose cross-border business is growing fast.
The bill was filed by the parliamentary club of Law and Justice (PiS). Its logic is simple: if Polish companies cannot operate in a given third country, companies from that country should not be able to operate in Poland.
– We are giving our market to a country that is not in the European Union, and it does not give us access to its market. Every percentage point of cargo market lost in Poland may decide whether firms such as PKP Cargo or Orlen Paliwa stay profitable – MP Kacper Płażyński said in June.
MPs also point to fuel. Michał Moskal, who handles the issue alongside Płażyński, says the Ukrainian side pressured Orlen to cut fees for fuel transport to Ukraine by blocking wagon entries, and that Ukrainian operators organise shipments bypassing Polish carriers. In August 2025 a first delivery of petroleum products from Hamburg reached the Ukrainian border without transshipment, carried in 1,435 mm Zacns tank wagons owned by Ukrzaliznycia. The EU leg was handled by UZ Cargo Poland as lead logistics operator: the Polish subsidiary supplied the licence, certificate and sales, while the rolling stock came from the Ukrainian parent.
For Moskal, that example shows Polish carriers competing with a vertically integrated state monopolist rather than a comparable company. EU liberalisation rules separate carriers from infrastructure managers and build competition. Poland completed that shift 25 years ago; Ukraine has not done it at all.
The PiS bill would let regulators refuse a freight licence to a company controlled by a non-EU entity when reciprocity is absent, meaning Polish or EU carriers lack comparable, real and non-discriminatory access to the applicant’s home market. Control, not registration, would decide, so an EU-registered firm owned from outside the bloc could also be covered. It is meant as an instrument, not an automatic closure of the market. The Sejm Infrastructure Committee took it up on 1 September.
A small share with strategic stakes
UZ Cargo Poland was registered on 30 June 2023 as Ukrainian Railways Cargo Poland, with Ukrzaliznycia as its sole shareholder. A year later it received a licence for rail freight and a single safety certificate from the European Union Agency for Railways, and in 2025 it started running larger projects of its own.
Its Polish market share stays small. The company is absent from the Office of Rail Transport’s 2025 list of carriers holding at least 2 percent, and from the list of firms above 0.5 percent in January-July 2026. Moskal says the figure understates its position: the market totalled 217.8 million tonnes in 2025 and is dominated by coal, aggregates, ores and domestic traffic, segments where the Ukrainian carrier is not focused. Cross-border flows with Ukraine, transshipment and fuel count more, as does pace – the company has extended its offer to Lithuania, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Italy and Germany.
Infrastructure may shift the balance. Ukraine is building a 70-kilometre 1,435 mm line from Mościska on the Polish border to Skniłów near Lviv, due for completion in 2027.
– Once it opens, Ukrainian trains will reach the EU without transshipment, and the terminal being built there will create real competition for Polish transshipment hubs, something the industry discusses openly, including the future of Sławków. The question the government should answer publicly is who will run services on that line and whether Poland secures access for its carriers in talks with the European Commission. If we fail, the gains from cross-border traffic and transshipment go to the Ukrainian side, and Polish companies such as PKP Cargo or PKP LHS, already struggling, are left as subcontractors on their own territory – said Moskal.
– We do not want to replace Polish railway companies. We want to build an efficient, competitive Ukraine-Poland-EU transport corridor together with them. Poland is a market for us, and a key partner and the natural gateway linking the Ukrainian rail system with the European Union – said Mykhailo Plastun, president of UZ Cargo Poland.
He says the model rests on cooperation with carriers already present in Poland, including PKP Cargo, Orlen Kolej, LTG Cargo Polska and Freightliner, and that roughly half the staff are Poles.
– In the next five years we do not plan a strategic entry onto the domestic rail freight market in Poland as a separate area of expansion. We want to grow by increasing trade and rail freight flows between Ukraine and the EU, not by taking over domestic traffic – said Plastun.
Reciprocity, but not during the war
Marcin Witczak, president of Laude Smart Intermodal, which serves Poland-Ukraine traffic through its terminal in Zamość, supports the reciprocity principle while doubting the method and timing.
– The idea of introducing reciprocity is right and needed, there is nothing to debate. How and when it happens is another matter. Neither war nor a command mode are allies here – said Marcin Witczak.
– Let us be clear: today Ukrzaliznycia is not able to let us onto its tracks as an independent carrier. It is not prepared for that organisationally or mentally because of the war. Rail routes are arteries deciding the supply of the armed forces – stressed Witczak.
After the war, as ties with the EU tighten, infrastructure will have to be separated from operations, the model used in member states; doing it now would mean chaos and paralysis of Ukrainian railways, which would only help the aggressor, he argues. Talks should begin from the EU-Ukraine dialogue and produce a roadmap.
– With one clear reservation: we begin implementing any agreements after the fighting ends permanently – added Pavel Kalasko, vice-president for eastern markets at Laude Smart Intermodal.
The gap in EU rules
The Sejm Infrastructure Committee examined the case behind closed doors. Afterwards it said only that the item had been completed, publishing no conclusions or positions. Moskal says government replies remain general declarations about good cooperation and monitoring.
The affair exposes the inadequacy of EU law. Rules letting carriers from third countries register firms in the EU were meant to ease the movement of international capital; nobody foresaw the friction where two large rail systems meet. EU law does not make reciprocity a direct condition of a licence, speaking instead of pursuing it through cross-border agreements, and the EU reserves the right to set rules for transport relations with third countries. The bill’s authors accept a conflict with EU law is possible.
Accession could settle the dispute. The European Council decided in December 2023 to open negotiations with Ukraine, and talks formally began in June 2024. Ukraine finished screening EU transport law in 2025, yet by September 2026 the cluster covering transport policy had not been formally opened. The European Commission still points to a competitive transport market, equal access to infrastructure and an independent regulator.
Źródło: WNP.PL, Fot. Wojtek Jargiło / PAP
