Metropolitan Association of Upper Silesia and Dąbrowa Basin
The Metropolitan Association of Upper Silesia and Dąbrowa Basin, usually referred to in Poland as the Silesian Metropolis, is an association of composed of 41 municipalities in the Polish Province of Silesia. The seat of the metropolitan council is Katowice, the largest city of the region and its capital. The Silesian Metropolis lies within one of the largest urban areas in the European Union. The Metropolitan Association of Upper Silesia and Dąbrowa Basin was created in June 2017 by a decree of Poland's Council of Ministers as an expansion of the already existing Metropolitan Association of Upper Silesia. That original union was formed ten year earlier in Świętochłowice by 14 core cities. The purpose of the Metropolitan Association is to maintain a strong urban and industrially developed area with internationally competitive profile and unified management of all infrastructure. For those goals, the association receives 5% of the income tax of its residents and participating municipalities.
The Metropolitan Association of Upper Silesia and Dąbrowa Basin has extensive road network, including national highwaysA4 and A1, as well as S1 and S86 expressways. Warsaw is connected to the agglomeration through National Road no. 1, commonly known as Gierkówka. The agglomeration is also connected to the Beskid Mountains in the south through two extensions of Gierkówka - National Road no. 1 and National Road no. 81. Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa - an inter-urban, limited-access expressway - connects Gliwice and Katowice city centers. The Metropolitan Association observes some of the highest traffic in Poland, with S86 between Katowice and Sosnowiec hosting 112,212 vehicles per day and A4 highway in Katowice seeing 100,983 vehicles per day.
Rail transportation
The agglomeration boasts the highest density of railway lines in Poland. Katowice Train Station is the 8th busiest passenger station in the country, handling 11.9 million passengers in 2017, which corresponds to 32,800 passengers per day. Gliwice is the second-busiest station in the metropolis, with 10,300 passengers per day. Regional and metropolitan trains are operated byKoleje Śląskie. Most national and international trains are operated by Polish State Railways. Gliwice and Katowice are connected to Warsaw by a fast Express Intercity Premium train. Other major cities to which the metropolis is directly connected to by trains include Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava.
Original association was set up by 14 city counties that form the core of the metropolitan region: (Bytom, Chorzów, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Gliwice, Jaworzno, Katowice, Mysłowice, Piekary Śląskie, Ruda Śląska, Siemianowice Śląskie, Sosnowiec, Świętochłowice, Tychy, and Zabrze. The association could not accept more members for legal reasons - under Polish law at that time only city counties could form such association. This changed in 2017 when the Polish government created new law designed specifically for this region's needs. Currently, 41 municipalities are forming the Metropolitan Association. Jaworzno, which was the founding member of the original union, decided to leave the new body, citing unwillingness to merge its public transportation company with the metropolitan one.
Name
The official name of the association is "Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowska Metropolia". This name was used on the official petition to create a metropolitan association, and later was used by the Polish Ministry of Interior in the final legal act published on June 30, 2017. Previous name proposals included:
Metropolia Katowice - first reported by regional newspaper Dziennik Zachodni but dismissed by mayors of other cities
Metropolia Górnośląska - protested by mayors of Sosnowiec and Dąbrowa Górnicza as excluding the Dąbrowa Basin aspect of the region
Metropolia Silesia - used by the association itself and commonly used in media but protested by scholars who asked that the association does not assume the name of the entire region. Additionally, similarly to Upper Silesian Metropolis, communities from Dąbrowa Basin part of the region complained it ignores their history.
