PKP Cargotabor and PKP Cargo

PKP Cargotabor is PKP Cargo’s maintenance subsidiary. It started experiencing financial troubles after the mother company also entered restructuring in September 2024. Maintenance orders decreased due to the decrease in transport demand, putting PKP Cargotabor into a financial strain. For PKP Cargo, the restructuring plan was approved last week.

“This is very good news for the company”, commented PKP Cargo Vice President Paul Miłek, “meaning it will be possible to implement restructuring measures.”

The plan allows PKP Cargo to propose arrangements to creditors. “Following this decision, based on the restructuring plan, we will be able to present final arrangement proposals to creditors. Once the arrangement proposals are finalised, we hope to conclude an arrangement with creditors this year.”

Back to normal

Once the rail operator succeeds in doing that, it can again apply for external funds and “become a full-fledged market participant”. It will also remove the “in restructuring” suffix from its name. PKP Cargo has officially carried the name “PKP Cargo in restructuring” since the start of the proceedings.

“We have a period of intense work ahead of us, but today’s decision by the Judge-Commissioner is a very important step towards completing the restructuring process”, concluded Miłek.

Cargotor’s sale and PKP Cargo’s restructuring

The sale of Cargotor to PKP PLK started over four years ago, in November 2021, with the approval from Polish authorities obtained in January 2023. Cargotor plays a key role in connecting Europe and Asia as it manages the terminal and the infrastructure of the Małaszewicze Transshipment Area, on the border with Belarus. This is the main entry point for freight trains coming from China into the EU.

PKP Cargo will use the funds to contribute to its restructuring, launched in 2022 to return to profitability. Other than the sale of important assets such as Cargotor, PKP Cargo also fired thousands of employees to drastically reduce costs. Operationally, the impact of the restructuring can already be felt, as the company is increasing its market share and growing its intermodal volumes.

The intermodal share in the Polish rail freight market in the first three quarters of 2025 also kept growing, both in weight and performance. For the former, it went from 12,5% during the first nine months of 2024 to 12,77%, while the latter went from 16.01% to 16.69%. During the third quarter of 2025, moreover, 745,165 TEUs were moved, “which was the highest quarterly result in the period of 2024-2025”, UTK explained.

The usual suspects

The Polish intermodal sector has two clear leaders, which control around 40% of the total market: PCC Intermodal, a subsidiary of German PCC SE, and the state-owned operator PKP Cargo. Another significant contributor is DB Cargo Polska, with a market share between 11% and 13% (depending on the metric used). The busiest Polish ports for intermodality remain Gdańsk and Gdynia. Gdańsk handled 3,204 intermodal trains, while Gdynia saw 1,500, according to the UTK report

What changes?

What this means in reality is that Cargotor will soon join the family of infrastructure managers within the PKP group rather than being part of the rail freight operator. In other words, the management of the infrastructure in and around Małaszewicze (the main entry point to Europe for rail freight coming from China) will now be a task for PKP PLK, which already manages most of the infrastructure in Poland.

For PKP Cargo, this means more needed liquidity to continue its restructuring process started in 2022 to return to profitability after years of mismanagement. This “step confirms the company’s ability to implement the planned activities within the assumed deadlines”, the rail freight operator added.

It wants to get the money as compensation for the so-called ‘coal decision’ by then-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. It forced PKP Cargo to transport coal from Baltic ports and to prioritise it over other commercial and profitable contracts. The measure helped Poland to weather the energy crisis following the covid pandemic and the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but brought severe financial problems upon PKP Cargo. In total, some 3,300 trains helped to transport the wave of imported coal during that time.

The ‘coal decision’ helped plunge PKP Cargo into a financial crisis. Since July 2024, the company has been in restructuring proceedings and had to fire over 3,000 employees.

CEO also dismissed

In the meantime, the PKP Cargo supervisory board has dismissed CEO Agniezska Wasilewska-Semail, who took on the position 11 months ago. It is unclear whether the dismissal has anything to do with the restructuring proceedings.

Reflecting on her time as CEO and her departure, Wasilewska-Semail commented on LinkedIn: “The company and the Group still face major market, financial, and regulatory challenges. I keep my fingers crossed that the months ahead bring wise decisions and consistency in strengthening PKP CARGO’s position – a company with real potential in modern, sustainable transport.” The newly appointed temporary CEO is Monika Starecka.

The company started the year with an operating loss of 48,6 million złoty (11,2 million euros) in the first quarter. This was already a positive step as the operating loss in Q1 2024 was 118,1 million złoty (27,2 million euros). Then, there was a significant leap during the second quarter of 2025, with the company posting an operating profit of 54,7 million złoty (12,8 million euros) at the half-year mark.

PKP Cargo’s path resurgence

The Polish incumbent filed for restructuring proceedings in the summer of 2024 due to an unbearable debt of over one billion euros. This was the culmination of years of mismanagement, a massive loss of market share and the prioritisation of the transport of coal in 2022 at the expense of other more profitable contracts.

The restructuring, which is expected to last well into 2026, comes with thousands of layoffs to balance PKP Cargo’s books. The plan of the new management was to reduce the workforce from over 14,000 to less than 10,000 workers. Some were transferred to other companies, including some within the PKP Group.

Another few spots were cancelled without people actually losing their jobs, as it seems that various employees at PKP Cargo held two or three fake positions. The initial decision was thus to fire 1,041 employees this year and 1,388 in 2026. However, after consultations with the trade unions, ‘only’ up to 500 people were laid off in 2025.

‘Brussels is limited, Poland can do it on its own’

One of the main points raised by Wasilewska-Semail is that Poland does not have to rely on EU institutions, which are often limited in their ability to act, but can reach the goals on its own. “In Poland, we can create our own regulatory framework that will allow some goods – especially dangerous ones – to be moved onto the rail”, she said.

On the one hand, her words reflect a fragmented landscape, where Member States struggle to find cohesion and move forward as a unified entity. On the other hand, they are often forced to do so due to the lack of support from EU institutions and ineffective policies. The industry is thus currently in a seemingly endless limbo that keeps it stagnating and in a constant fight for its life.

This was even noticeable in recent developments regarding the Greening Freight Package, as RailFreight.com reported on multiple occasions. This is supposed to be the means to finally put rail at the centre of European logistics and transport, but reality might say otherwise. The Combined Transport Directive risks being scrapped, keeping the sector 30 years in the past, while the Weights and Dimensions Directive might further disrupt interoperability between different modes of transport.

The coal question

She underlined how Poland can follow the lead of Baltic and Balkan countries, as well as Switzerland and Austria, to make rail freight a more prominent and popular choice for freight transport. One of the main challenges is to replace the rail transport of coal with, for example, aggregates. Coal has long been one of the main products moved by freight trains in Europe, but is now being sidelined due to the energy transition.

Austria and Switzerland, for instance, have been coal-free for a while, the head of PKP Cargo pointed out, but rail freight still plays a major role there. This was made possible by national policies rather than European ones. “Austria has a specific road tax, which is not a simple fee, but a combination of elements that influence the transfer of some heavy goods to rail. Is this being worked on here? No”, Wasilewska-Semail added.

The operator points out that other rail operators showed decline between July and August (-5.2% for their collective transported volume and -5.3% for transport performance). PKP Cargo, by contrast, showed positive results of +2.4% and +3.6% for volume and performance during that same time period.

Restructuring plan

“The August share increase demonstrates that our efforts to improve operational efficiency and maintain close collaboration with key customers are yielding tangible results”, commented Agnieszka Wasilewska-Semail, President of the company’s Management Board.

“Despite challenging market conditions and limited demand in some segments, we are consistently implementing our strategy and the assumptions of our restructuring plan. We are strengthening our market position. This month, we completed our first aggregate transport using leased specialised wagons. This is not only a new business opportunity but also a part of our strategy to modernise and diversify our transportation offerings.”

“As a company that actively participates in the rail freight market, we listen to the needs of our customers”, commented CEO Agnieszka Wasilewska-Semail. “Having a new type of wagon in the PKP CARGO fleet, which meets market demand, will expand the company’s offerings and open up new transport opportunities.”

Operational savings

“This builds our competitive advantage by demonstrating our commitment to high-quality solutions that optimise the transport process”, Wasilewska-Semail continued. “These initiatives are consistent with both the restructuring plan and our strategic operational plans.”

PKP Cargo specifies that the Eamnos wagons offer greater load capacity than alternatives. That translates into fewer loading and unloading cycles and therefore significant operational savings.