Poland's railways failing in the heat

A busy two days touring factories in Poland (more about this and prospects for the Polish economy later). On Tuesday I woke at 03:45 to catch the 05:13 to W-wa Zachodnia, and from there the 06:05 to Opole. At W-wa Zachodnia I found the Scottish Restaurant closed and my train without a restaurant car. Now, McDonald's advertises itself as open from 4am, and the EIC 1621 Odra is shown on the station timetable as having proper dining facilities. Staff shortages. As soon as the train pulls out, passengers are informed that this particular train doesn't have a dining carriage. Still a man comes with a trolley handing out free water (good) and selling ham rolls and cheese rolls at 6zł (£1.30) each. So I managed to make it to Opole OK, although the air conditioning was a bit fierce until the sun rose high enough to burn. I arrive in Opole on time, so far so good...

Next rail leg was Wrocław to Poznań, the following day. The 10:45 InterCity IC 6501 Heweliusz service, which started its run in Wrocław, left the station 24 minutes late. Not only was there no restaurant car, there was not even a drinks/snacks trolley. Fortunately, I'd eaten a reasonable breakfast. Below: the beautifully refurbished entrance to Wrocław Główny station.

Below: soon the train has left Wrocław and is speeding along through open countryside, which in summer is extremely attractive to look at from the train window. But every now and then, the train switches track and slows down to walking pace...

Refurbishment work is going on up and down the line between Wrocław and Poznań. Below: Rawicz station, in an early phase of remont. This could be somewhere in East Africa, a giant infrastructure project financed by China - but no, we are in southwest Poland.

Single track working continues through Kościan. Below: the station building stands in front of space for two tracks and a platform; holiday-making passengers on the single platform currently in use wait for a southbound service as the northbound train pulls away, headed for Poznań, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia.

The timetable gave me 22 minutes in Poznań to change trains. Unfortunately, the train did not make up much lost time along the way; the combination of this plus change of platform for the service to my destination, Swarzędz, meant I missed it and had to take a taxi from the station to make my meeting on time. Very pricy.

Swarzędz is on the line from Poznań to Konin; a major refurbishment of this line is under way causing InterCity trains to divert via Inowrocław and Gniezno, adding nearly an hour to the normal Warsaw-Poznań journey time. Local trains still use the Konin line. Swarzędz station, below, is complete; tastefully refurbished. However, the booking hall closes at 16:00; no problem - you can buy tickets on the train from the conductor or from a machine that takes cash and credit/debit cards.

I walked from the factory back to Swarzędz station in good time to catch the train back to Warsaw. This arrived from Zielona Góra 15 minutes early, but had to wait for coaches from another train from Gorzów Wielkopolski to be coupled to it. The combined train left 15 minutes late, so I was sat in a stationary train for half an hour bathed in sweat (the air conditioning was turned off). It was only an hour after departure from Poznań that the train became truly comfortable temperature-wise. But not for long; by the time we arrived delayed at Łowicz, the sun had set, the air outside had cooled, but the air-con was still pumping out freezing air. I moved to another carriage in which the air-con hadn't worked at all - the window was left open at speeds of up to 150km/h, which proved effective.

There was a snack trolley - but only in the carriages from Gorzów. I tracked it down and bought some pretzels and water, enough to keep me going until Warsaw.

Back in W-wa Zachodnia with a long wait for my train home (below). This station was partially refurbished; major work still awaits the platforms, which will be totally enclosed.

Frequent delays, many much longer than the ones I experienced, lack of staff (many are holidaying too, just as peak passenger use was expected), over-running construction work, a heatwave and crowded trains mean that train travel is not the pleasure it usually is. But things will get better - they were much, much worse in years gone by!

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