The non-anoraks using the Koleje Mazowieckie services to and from town may have noticed a bit more space... room to sit where once were sardines... the reason is that the EN71 is not much more than a more powerful four-car version of the EN57 and its three-car units. So a train made of two units now has eight carriages as opposed to six.
Below: this is a modernised EN71, in service with Koleje Mazowiecki since 2010 in this form.
While I was delighted to have got a seat on the 08:11 service from W-wa Jeziorki to W-wa Śródmieście this morning, I was less than happy at the fact that the journey took 22 minutes longer than scheduled, arriving in town at 09:03 and not 08:41 as advertised.
The cold weather, however, brings out the polluters who warm their houses by burning low-grade coal and other rubbish.
The result is there to be seen in the sky. The photo below, taken just 90 minutes after I snapped the brilliant blue in the shot above, shows the yellowy-grey blanket of smog that enveloped Warsaw today. [Click on the link below and the label 'smog' at the foot of this post to compare this same view with different smog levels.]
Clamping down on polluters - and making examples of more egregious burners of old lino, mouldy rolls of wallpaper, leaking wellington boots and old copies of Gnasz Dziennik coupled with heavy fines and a ban on short-distance one-per-car commuting might help.
This time last year:
Uneasy Sunny Day - smog
This time two years ago:
Public media? State media? Party media?
[another year of not watching a single second of TVP1]
This time three years ago:
Beer, consumer choice and the Meaning of Life
This time four years ago:
What's Cameron got against us Poles?
The time six years ago:
Anyone still remember the Przybyl case?
This time seven years ago:
Wetlands midwinter meltdown
This time eight years ago:
Jeziorki rail scenes, winter
This time nine years ago:
Winter drivetime, Jeziorki
This time ten years ago:
Kraków, a bit of winter sunshine
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3 comments:
Your rolling stock news begs a couple of questions, Michael. First, have the platforms been lengthened, or were they always long enough for eight car trains? And where have the units come from? (Has fleet utilisation been improved, or have trains elsewhere been shortened?)
Over here, eight-car EMU trains have just replaced much shorter DMU consists between Didcot and Paddington on local services - faster, more seats, and greater comfort. (It's just a shame that the new electric intercity trains have barely padded seats that feel like sitting on planks of wood!)
Nice article. BTW how is the Smog doing this year - I don't see you posting on it so hopefully things are healthier for your lungs!
@ WHP:
Platform (200m) is long enough for two x four-car EN71 units (each 83m long). Indeed, during the height of the modernisation work, Koleje Mazowieckie would run three x three-car EN57 units (each 65m long).
Where did the EN71s come from? Answer is amazing - from Slovenia! Poland exported a number of EN57 and EN71 units to Yugoslavia in the 1960s and '70s, and in recent years several have returned to be modernised and put into Koleje Mazowieckie service.
Anonymous:
Smog is not as bad this year - I've not yet seen the chimney at Kawęczyn totally disappear from view from my office window as it did last year - but then we've not really had a sharp frost yet this winter. Cold snap = more crap gets burnt = more smog. Plus high pressure, temperature inversion, no wind... those are perfect conditions for a killer smog.
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