Bus shake-up for Jeziorki and Dawidy

With the opening of the viaduct on ulica Karczunkowska, the provision of bus routes is changing. It's clear that the last three and half years have been a temporary blip, and that things will get back to (kind of) how they were. But a bit better...

In essence the 715 will return to ul. Karczunkowska, while the 209 will run down ul. Baletowa, terminating at the bus loop that was completed almost three years ago (but has yet to see a bus actually using it). A new, peak-hours only, bus, the 809 will run the same route as the 209, but rather than terminate at the loop on Baletowa, it will turn into ul. Starzyńskiego, go through Dawidy Bankowe and Zamienie, and terminate at the bus loop by W-wa Jeziorki. Which will still be used by the L39 as its northern terminus.

The 737, which links Ursynów to Zgorzała, Lesznowola and the southern cemetery (Cmentarz Południowy, Antoninów), will now run down Karczunkowska rather than Baletowa.

No announcement has been made regarding night buses calling at either the W-wa Jeziorki or Baletowa bus loops.

But for Jeziorki, this is good news; it's bye-bye 209, hello again 715 and welcome 737. From five buses an hour at peak times to eight buses an hour. Plus - for the first time in three and half years I can catch a bus from Trombity that goes more than just one stop west - and, given the extension of Warsaw travel passes into Zone 2 from 1 September 2018, for the first time I can travel for free from Trombity on both the 715 and the 737 right to the end of both routes (P+R Al. Krakowska in the case of the 715).

Below: ul. Baletowa. Three years almost, waiting and ready, the bus loop complete with shelter - all that's needed is a bus to use it and a timetable. In the meanwhile, graffiti, broken glass, unauthorised advertising and empty miniatures.

Below: has ever a piece of Warsaw public transport infrastructure stood completed and unused for three years? It's usually the other way around.

Below: looking west; ul. Baletowa becomes ul. Warszawska on the other side of ul. Starzyńskiego, beyond Warsaw's city limits. You can see two bus stops; for people travelling from Dawidy, Łady or Nowa Olszynka towards Ursynów, the change in bus routes means either a 3km detour around Dawidy Bankowe, Zamienie and Jeziorki including an extra 1km of jammed-up ul. Puławska (an additional 20- to 25-minute travel time in peak hours), or changing buses, getting off at these stops and walking 200m to the new loop to catch a 209 or 809.

Meanwhile, at W-wa Jeziorki station, they're still trying to fix the lifts. Left: two guys working away this afternoon... until they've succeeded, buses won't be using the two bus stops on top of the viaduct. This raises the question as to whether passengers on the re-routed 715 and 737 buses will be able to alight here for the station! The alternative is to run the buses around the loop until the lifts are working...

The buses are one of the two big stories around Jeziorki. The other is that there is now a go-ahead with building the S7 extension from the airport to Lesznowola (section A, work on sections B and C are under way already). Rubau, the company that won the tender for section A of the S7 extension back in August 2017 was taken off the job by the Polish highways authority GDDKiA in March 2018 for not showing sufficient progress. Since then, the job has been put out to tender again; the new winner is PolAqua, and the company has been given 26 months to complete the work. So - summer 2022? We shall see...

Left: in the fields between Dawidy Bankowe and Jeziorki, I spot this day-glo orange cross sprayed onto grass. I assume this is to do with the S7. It will run from the junction south of Okęcie airport where the S79 meets the S2, running southwards through these fields, swinging to the west a bit to run between Zgorzała to the left and Zamienie to the right.

Below: from the top of where once stood Ballast Mountain, but now is a heap of soil, I look north towards Dawidy and ul. Baletowa. The S7 will run to the left of the white buildings on the horizon.

Below: an excellent map from the new WTP (Warsaw public transport authority, that has been rebranded from the familiar ZTM, just like London Transport became Transport for London). The map shows the location of the S7 as it runs this way, it also shows (still!) the old PKP Jeziorki bus loop to the east of the tracks, not the new one across the viaduct.

Click to enlarge the map. Apart from the wrong location for the bus stop, it's much more up-to-date than Google Maps.

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