With the suburban line cut, one rail commuting option is to get to W-wa Centralna and take the double-decker Radom train. I tried this one last night. Centralna is changing quickly - in mid-remont - and still many inconveniences for travellers. I'm trying to get to Platform 4. I'm informed by the new, blue indicators that my train will depart at 19:07. But the main staircase is shut off. So I make my way along the re-opened passage along the northern side of the station to the stairs at the end of the platform. Below: the re-opened transversal passage at the east end of the station. The staircase is open, though the escalators are not working - and there's no signage.
No working signage at the platform either. Will the train (which the online timetable claims will depart at 19:00) arrive according to the displayed time, or the internet time? It leaves at 19:07. But then it waits at signals, makes a long stop at W-wa Al. Jerozolimskie, and finally arrives at W-wa Jeziorki 15 minutes later than the advertised time. Essentially - if you're going to be travelling from Centralna, give yourself plenty of time to get to the platform and take the online timetable with a pinch of salt.What else is new at W-wa Centralna? Officially sanctioned graffiti. I mentioned what was going on earlier this week at W-wa Powiśle, the day before the station closed for eight weeks. Here at Centralna, a similar story. To spruce up the drab walls, selected graffiti artists have been given free rein on the basis that if not them, less-gifted individuals will cover the surface with something, well, less arty.
So then - what have we got here? "Przestrzeń jest tym co powstrzymuje wszystko od bycia w tym samym miejscu." "Space is that which stops everything being in the same place?" Good God Almighty! The spirit of the Master of Paddington is alive and well! He who painted "Far away is close at hand in images of elsewhere", that enduring slogan painted on a wall outside Paddington station, beloved of the Daily Telegraph's Way of the World column.
Above: New platform, new carriages, old engine. The Radom-bound train enters Centralna's refurbished Platform 4. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the jury is still out regarding the graffiti. 'It's a scandal!' the headline cries.This time last year:
Hurting and healing
This time three years ago:
The land where I was born
This time four years ago:
Night moves
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6 comments:
Third photograph - Karenina?
In the morning I take the fast train from Radom (which doesn't stop at W-wa Jeziorki) at 7:07, or the one at 7:55 from NI. Both take me to W-wa Centralna and from then I can easily get to work. In the afternoon all train I used to take depart from W-wa Zachodnia. Getting there would be a nuisance, so I changed rails for tram, underground and then bus. To my surprise, my yesterday's and today's journeys weren't longer than those by train (1 hour 15 minutes). Puławska's not badly jammed in the afternoon, so take a bus, might be good alternative for a train.
And I observed the "substitute" bus line are superfluous - empty buses sit in traffic jams in Al. Jerozolimskie.
Oh, last week I saw the underground passages. Glamorous :)
I like it (the graffiti). Better that than a drab wall, advertising hoarding or a load of tagging.
W-wa Centralna is rapidly in danger of becoming a modern train station!
Sometimes I enjoy the Polish chaos but not this time... Passenger is always least important.
June 3 and jakdojade.pl still doesn't have KM trains in the system. I have been using the train line by guessing and luck, mainly.
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