Prague - Jeziorki - Moscow

When the railway timetables were amended on 1 September, there was an alteration to a train I've written about in the past - the Vltava, which runs from Prague to Moscow via the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Until 1 September, this splendid service, one of the Great Train Journeys of Central and Eastern Europe, bypassed Warsaw altogether - probably a Cold War throwback when Warsaw was considered by the USSR and the CSSR as a hotbed of dangerous radicalism.

Now, the Vltava stops in Warsaw in both directions. But what happens next is curious. Running west, it leaves Warsaw and heads down the (relatively by Polish standards) fast line directly to Katowice. But coming back from Prague, it turns off this line at Mszczonów and makes a curious and slow diversion along the Skierniewice to Łuków line (full details also to be found in the above link). The upshot is that Katowice to Warsaw is covered in over five and half hours rather than the usual two and half. Why? To give passengers on the night train longer to sleep?

Before the timetable change, this exotic train had one extra carriage, belonging to PKP, so that domestic passengers could use it between Katowice and Terespol, on the Belarusian border. That's now gone, so Poles can no longer use this train within Poland. The carriages now are just Russian, Czech and Belarusian - still exotic enough.

And it runs through Jeziorki. Every morning, at 09:23. Today, I caught the train for the first time at the level crossing on ul. Baletowa by W-wa Dawidy station (above). It was running two or three minutes ahead of schedule. The blue-and-grey carriages are Czech, red-and-blue ones Russian and the single all-blue one at the rear was Belarusian.

Note: ul. Baletowa is a busy road. The Warsaw-Radom railway line crossing it is also busy. Yet there are neither barriers nor even lights here. Incredibly dangerous! Unthinkable in the UK. A road bridge is planned for this crossing as part of the modernisation of the Warsaw-Radom line. By, er, 2015. Officially.