Re-opened to passenger trains on 14 March, Warsaw's new old station remains functionally unfinished after over four months. A short walk-through, but first, some history.
Until Warsaw's main railway station, W-wa Centralna, or Dworzec Centralny, was completed in 1976, Warszawa Główna Osobowa served as the main terminus for passenger trains entering Warsaw from the west. Once W-wa Centralna was opened, W-wa Główna remained in use for another 21 years but only as the terminus for trains on the Radom line. It closed in 1997, around the time I moved to Poland. I remember the station in 1966, peering over the bridge on ulica Towarowa, seeing many EN57 electric multiple units, then painted navy-blue and cream, standing at its many platforms. From 1972, the northern platforms of W-wa Główna Osobowa were given over to the railway museum. Beyond that were the goods platforms. These now serve as the location for Warsaw's Nocny Market. [Click here to see Towarowa before hipsterification.]
The reopened W-wa Główna station has, as yet, no working signage - just two sets of paper timetables posted in the display cabinets. From the one street entrance, on ulica Towarowa, you can only guess from which of the four platforms your train will depart (its destination is on the head of the train at the other end). There's no ticket office or even booth, no station personnel. I called in to have a look and was disappointed by the prowizorka of it all. The passenger footbridge at the far end of the platforms is still unfinished; all that is ready are the four platforms and their canopies.
The purpose of the reopening of W-wa Główna lies in the impending modernisation of the Linia średnicowa - the transversal railway line that cuts under central Warsaw in a tunnel, with the two stations W-wa Centralna for long-distance trains and W-wa Śródmieście for suburban trains. The modernisation will entail the replacement of W-wa Powiśle suburban station for two new ones - W-wa Muzeum Narodowy (by Rondo De Gaulle'a) and W-wa Solec nearer the river.
Below: looking west, the footbridge visible in the distance - though I could see no work going on (it's ten past three in the afternoon on a weekday). Note the two electronic indicator boards - both blank. One double-decker train is heading to Radom via Chynów, the other is heading to Skierniewice. Which is mine?
Below: looking east with Warsaw's skyline on the horizon. The display cabinets at this end of the platforms contain no timetables (on the basis that footbridge access is not yet ready, so no one needs them here). A curiosity - note the kilometre markers; the one on the left of the photo below says 1.7, one nearer the entrance on ul. Towarowa says 1.6. So counting up from
Kilometre Zero at W-wa Centralna, it seems, rather than from the junction back at W-wa Zachodnia? The two double-decker Koleje Mazowieckie trains are flanking a ŁKA (Łódź Agglomeration Railways) train that also terminates at W-wa Główna.
Below: "Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day" - so two stopped clocks will be right four times a day. Why two analogue clocks are needed here is beyond me - presumably one is needed in case the digital displays aren't working - but two? Note the steam engines in the distance - these are open-air exhibits at Stacja Muzeum, the PKP graveyard for once-magnificent locos, now left to rot, exposed to the elements for almost half a century. They should be indoors and looked after the way the National Railway Museum in York does.
Below: I hear a station announcement - the double-decker train that's leaving first is the one for Skierniewice, so I board it to travel the one stop to W-wa Zachodnia, where I shall change trains. I take this train because it is on the right-hand track, giving a better view of the works. I note the 'kiss and ride' drop-off points by W-wa Główna - curious, since pick-up points are needed, given that this is an inner-city terminus station, not the place where someone is likely to be dropped off. At first sight, I thought this was a driving school.
On the way from W-wa Główna to W-wa Zachodnia. The acres of sidings are being rationalised, unnecessary tracks ripped up. Note the curved window line - I'm sitting upstairs on the double-decker. And note Warsaw's new skyline. When I moved to Poland in 1997, none of these towers existed.
Below: I change trains at W-wa Zachodnia, which gives me a chance to get an update on work going on here. A cracking pace. Every time I pass through, it's advancing. Note the roof structure taking shape.
Bonus shot: another change of trains, this time at W-wa Jeziorki, onward bound to Chynów, and I am surprised to see this brand-new rolling stock headed for Piaseczno. This is the Siedlce-built ER160 Statler FLIRT 3 (Fast Light Innovative Regional Transport), one of 18 units ordered by Koleje Mazowieckie in 2019.
Progress - it could be faster. And yet, despite my impatience, it is clearly visible. I might be having a cobble*, but Poland's railways - and indeed Warsaw, and Poland - have all come a long way in a short time. But there's always more that we want!
*cobble stone = moan (Cockney rhyming slang)
This time five years ago:
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2 comments:
I guess that one display is for arrivals and the other for departures, and it would be easier (and possibly less expensive) to install two identical units rather than two separate units plus an analogue clock.
Of course, why the units are so close together is another question.
I wonder whether these displays were made in China or in the EU?
When buying a cooker for our house in London, I looked at one for £325 and one for £425. The only difference between the two was the more expensive one had a circular hole in the fascia with a clock installed that buzzed when the set time was up. Public tendering, however, works on different rules!
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