The bells start to clang, the lights start to flash, the barriers fall, and what little traffic there is on a dreary Saturday dusk comes to a halt. As is standard now, there is a three-minute time lag between the barriers coming down and the train actually passing.
Below: the changed alignment of the roadway (in yellow). Much has changed since spring, when this satellite photo was taken and uploaded to Google Earth. Ul. Kolejowa is now asphalted all the way south to ul. Spokojna (the next level crossing south of Chynów), the new tracks have been laid right through on both lines, and there's asphalt on the southern section of ul. Spacerowa.
Below: but the new asphalt on ul. Spacerowa is but a foretaste of things to come. At the moment, it goes as far as the top of the rise (on the horizon). Beyond that - Somme-style mud and trenches. But it will change. To the right of this photo, you can see the strip of land purchased from the adjoining orchards that will be turned over to a proper, full-width pavement, allowing inhabitants of Widok to get to Chynów station directly - over 85 years after it was built - with clean shoes. The alternative mud-free route, across the level crossing and up ul. Kolejowa, entails an extra 200m walk.
Below: just as I reach the top of the rise (visible in the photo above), as though by magic, the station lights come on. The brand-new station looks so beautiful! The time: 15:35, 12 minutes after sunset (the year's earliest).
Below: once, to get to the single island platform from the west side of the station, passengers had to cross a live track; there was no official exit to the east of the line. Now, the tunnel and its three entrances are finally open, giving local passengers greater safety and, at last, proper access to Jakubowizna that doesn't involve marching over 85m of ballast between live rails and then a scramble over a slippery trench and then another 15m of mud to reach the nearest asphalt.
The opening of this tunnel shaves a minute's walking time off my journey from Chynów station to my działka - more importantly its safer than either trespassing across the tracks or walking the long way round via an unlit and unpaved stretch of ul. Kolejowa. Progress.
This time last year:
This time three years ago:
Kick out against change - or accept it?
This time five years ago:
Warwick University alumni meet in Warsaw
This time six years ago:
Pluses and minuses of PKP InterCity
This time seven years ago:
When transportation breaks down
This time 12 years ago:
Full moon closest to Earth
Kick out against change - or accept it?
This time five years ago:
Warwick University alumni meet in Warsaw
This time six years ago:
Pluses and minuses of PKP InterCity
This time seven years ago:
When transportation breaks down
This time 12 years ago:
Full moon closest to Earth
2 comments:
It's good news that all this work has been finished. But is there any protection (or warning) for over-height vehicles before they meet the overhead electrification on the level crossing? (Or are the wires simply higher than any road-legal vehicle?)
There are warning signs on all level crossings going under wires. But the road-legal height thing is also correct - I remember in 2013, the British Embassy was organising a roadshow by a London double-decker (so-called 'Boris Bus' before the two terms were inexorably linked to a whopping big lie), going (as I remember it) from Gdansk via Warsaw, the Radom Air Show and Kraków down to the Slovak border. Took an inordinate amount of planning to avoid level crossings and low bridges!
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