All trains headed to Krakow from Warsaw and the north have to pass through a station called Tunel (tunnel). It's called Tunel because, well, it has a tunnel in it ( 50°25'49.00"N, 19°59'21.78"E). This shows how rare railway tunnels are in Poland, mainly because Poland is too flat to merit much in the way of tunnels. The 750m (half-mile) long tunnel was built by the Austrio-Hungarian Empire for the railway line Krakow to Warsaw (then within the Russian Empire). Just on the Austrian side of the border with the Russian Empire, the tunnel was a strategic gateway to the south, and was built with the possibility of being blown up in the eventuality of war (which of course broke out in 1914).Imagine living here and being stopped by the police. "Gdzie Pan mieszka?" "W Tunelu". Hello, slammer!
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4 comments:
Given your railway interest have you been here http://www.kolejka-piaseczno.com/ - it's quite near you.
They've had there last weekend daytrip of the summer but I believe on Mikołajki and Sylwester they have a run.
I went on it several years ago when Eddie was still little. They have a nice engine (Px48) but modern carriages to go with it, which spoils the effect. Only goes as far as Grójec now (used to go to Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą).
There is no town nor village by the name of Tunel. It's only the name of the station within the area of the Uniejów-Rędziny village near Miechów. So nobody lives in "Tunel".
According to this article, there was a place named Tunel.
Still, it's even more unusual to have a station not named after the settlement it serves!
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