Warsaw-Radom railway line plans for Jeziorki

A big thanks again to local tip-off from a source that can't be named - I have plans for how the railway line at Jeziorki will look after the major rebuild of the Warsaw-Radom railway line (PLK Line No.8). I've written about it many a time - how it takes longer to get to Radom by train from Warsaw today than it did 75 years ago (! True! Yes!) and about the regular fails that occur along this line (click relevant labels below to see). I first wrote about the modernisation plans for the line over four years ago!

PKP has a budget, from EU structural funds, to modernise the line. This will mean shorter journey times and (theoretically) more frequent suburban services. For W-wa Jeziorki the modernisation plans have three major implications, as well as another possible change.

The first concerns the platforms. Note on the photo (below) how the 'up' or town-bound line swings to the left so as to accommodate W-wa Jeziorki's island platform. This causes trains to slow down, and as there are island platforms at Nowa Iwiczna, W-wa Dawidy and W-wa Okęcie, replacing them with platforms straddling two parallel lines (as at W-wa Żwirki i Wigury, W-wa Rakowiec and W-wa Aleje Jerozolimskie), journey times for through trains will shorten. The 'down' (Radom-bound) line platform will be located north of ul. Karczunkowska, alongside the car repair workshop. The 'up' platform will be located between the 'up' line and the un-electrified track used by the coal trains to Siekierki power station, south of ul. Karczunkowska. The two electrified lines will run in parallel through the station.

Click on the photo to see just how rough and bumpy the track is...

...This is because of the parlous state of the trackbed. With wooden sleepers under the rails, many of which are partially or wholly rotted, or burnt (in summer, fires break out, caused by oil on the track, dry wood and sparked by either a cigarette butt thrown out of a passing train, or sunlight focused onto the sleeper by broken glass from an empty beer or vodka bottle from the same source. Below: typical sleeper, by the pedestrian level crossing on ul. Kórnicka. One bolt has disappeared, the wood beneath it rotted through. The result of the poor condition of the track is low speed limits.

The other major, major, major change will be the dismantling of the level crossing on ul. Karczunkowska, replacing it with a viaduct over the line. There will be stairs leading down to both platforms on either side of the viaduct. Below: W-wa Jeziorki station this morning. This view will, in a few years, be but a memory. A viaduct will span the tracks, the 'down' platform moved north, across the road, the 'up' platform nudged eastwards across to the other side of the 'up' line. And passengers will no longer have to cross the line in unauthorised places and vault up to reach the platform!

The third major change: the PKP Jeziorki bus loop will be moved from its current location to the east of the tracks across to where ul. Gogolińska currently meets ul. Karczunkowska. Buses from Puławska will cross over the viaduct then turn into a new slip road accessing Gogolińska and the loop. Meanwhile, the space currently occupied by the bus loop will (on the plans at least) be given over to a Park+Ride. Unless were to be a multi-storey Park+Ride, the plans show it as having space for 68 cars. Which, coincidentally, is the average number of cars parked along the muddy verges of ul. Gogolińska on the average working day. Not enough, in other words, to tempt new users from among the motorised hordes forcing their way into down up congested thoroughfares like ul. Puławska.

When will work begin? Don't know. When will it end? Three or four years after it begins, I guess.

This time last year:
World's largest ship calls in at Gdańsk

This time three years ago:
Raymond's Treasure - a short story

This time four years ago:
Now an urban legend: Kebab factory under W-wa Centralna

This time five years ago:
It was twenty years ago today

This time seven years ago:
By bike to Czachówek again