Reading transport figures

Outcome or plan. The road authority GDDKiA reports about 5,466 km of motorways and expressways at the end of 2025 and almost 400 km opened during 2025 ("almost" because the figure is rounded), with about 1,373 km under construction [1]. The 290.8 km for 2026 is a plan [2]: it becomes an outcome only when the year is over.

Rail. The Office of Rail Transport reports 438.97 million passengers on the railways in 2025, the most in 30 years [3].

Air. Polish airports handled 66.1 million passenger movements in 2025 [4], of which Warsaw Chopin alone 24.1 million [5]. A movement is one person getting on or off a plane, so a return trip counts as two.

Sea. Gdańsk's terminals handled nearly 2.8 million containers, a record, measured in TEU, twenty-foot equivalent units, in 2025 [6]. TEU counts container size, not weight, and it is not comparable with passengers.

Travel by people. In a CBOS survey 44% of adults said they travelled abroad in 2025, the highest share in a series that began in 1993, and 64% took a leisure trip, the highest since the question was first asked in 2006 [7].

Sources

1. GDDKiA: 2025 review, https://www.gov.pl/web/gddkia/podsumowanie-2025-roku (End 2025)
2. GDDKiA: In 2026 we will open more than 290 km of roads, https://www.gov.pl/web/gddkia/w-2026-r-udostepnimy-ponad-290-km-drog (2026 plan, published 30 December 2025)
3. Office of Rail Transport: Railways in 2025, https://utk.gov.pl/en/new/22869%2C2025-in-railways-a-passenger-boom-and-freight-challenges.html (2025)
4. Civil Aviation Authority: Polish airport traffic in 2025, https://www.ulc.gov.pl/aktualnosci/przewozy-w-polskich-portach-lotniczych-w-2025-roku (2025)
5. Warsaw Chopin Airport: market potential (passengers in 2025), https://www.lotnisko-chopina.pl/pl/potencjal-rynkowy%C2%A0lotniska.html (2025)
6. Port of Gdańsk: cargo handling in 2025, https://www.portgdansk.pl/en/events/cargo-handling-at-the-port-of-gdansk-liquid-fuels-in-the-lead-while-containers-hit-a-record-high/ (2025)
7. CBOS: Activities and experiences in 2025, https://www.cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2026/K_017_26.PDF (2025)