To Rzeszów and back by rail, Part I

Thursday 22 September was World Car-Free Day, and Koleje Mazowieckie announced free travel all over its network. Everyone eligible, no document necessary. As I was travelling to Rzeszów that day, I decided not to go into Warsaw to catch a train from there (either via Kraków or Lublin), but to go as far south on the KM network (Skarżysko-Kamienna), and thence to Rzeszów, via Kielce and Kraków.

I caught the 08:29 from Chynów to Radom Główny, for the first time taking this route since the modernisation of the line was completed. Having already visited the brand-new station of Warka Miasto, I was keen to see new stations that have recently appeared within Radom’s city limits. These are (from north to south), Radom Stara Wola, Radom Północ and Radom Gołębiów. They are all copy-paste jobs, adhering to modern standards of level access, safety and signage. These stations add a lot to the liveability of Radom, which I confess is one of my least-favourite Polish cities (along with Białystok and Częstochowa). Radom is very much a commuter town for Warsaw, 100km to the north, and the modernisation of the line has vastly improved access to the capital.

The three new stations for Radom have doubled the number that the city has, which, as of last December, led to the renaming of the main station from simple 'Radom' to 'Radom Główny'. Główny comes from the word głowa, meaning 'head'; cognate with the German Hauptbahnhof.

Below: the first impressions of a passenger alighting at Platform 1, Radom Głowny from a new Impuls train, which has just called at three brand-new stations are "What's this? A heritage railway?". The wooden building dates back to Tsarist times, when Radom was a station along the line from Dęblin (across the Vistula) to Dąbrowa Górnicza.  

Left: rules are rules but in Radom we do things our way. On the (wooden) window sill of the wooden building, a glass jar for cigarette ends. 

Further clashes of rules vs habit at the far end of the platform (below) - the station car park doesn't have a direct route from the platform, so a length of fencing has been removed and a path trampled by passengers through the rough grass into a muddy track. This way, it's 40m from platform end to car park - the official way is 445m. You can just see a person diving into the gap in the fence on their way to their car. Whoever designed/planned pedestrian access and walkways around this station should have their driving licence taken away from them until they learn to think like public-transport users.

Below: Radom station from Platform 3, the main building looking far grander than the wooden shack above, although they both date back to 1885. This building has recently been renovated.

So - on to Skarżysko-Kamienna. A platform change and a 12-minute wait, no need for a ticket. The contrast between the modernised part of the line (Warsaw-Radom) to the unmodernised (Radom-Skarżysko) was marked. Below: the station (more of a halt, really) at Gąsawy Plebańskie. Note the old, low, paved platform. Note also the modernised road infrastructure - new pavements, pedestrian crossing. But no steps from the platform to the crossing! The old chap had to gingerly make his way down the grassy bank - at least the day was dry. The 'official' way is a 120m detour via the far end of the platform (just visible). There is hope - this line awaits modernisation. May the planners think about how people use the station. They won't want to be doing long detours because of slipshod planning.

Between Radom and Skarżysko lies the sad town of Szydłowiec, notable for having the highest unemployment rate in Poland. While Poland is currently enjoying the lowest joblessness since the end of communism (4.8%), with the official rate in Poznań at 1.0% and Warsaw 1.7%, IN SZYDŁOWIEC IT IS STILL 21.4%!!) How on earth can this be? A town full of slackers, shirkers, alcoholic ne'er-do-wells? Even Radom up the road has 9.2% unemployment... Something should be done about this place. Below: the station building in Szydłowiec (built 1885) looks like it's been semi-demolished.

My train arrives on time at Skarżysko; the station is being modernised. Last time I was here was in January 2017. The old footbridge has been pulled down, to be replaced by a tunnel (under construction). An important railway junction, the station stands on the crossing of the Radom-Kraków and Sandomierz-Koluszki lines. This is one of Poland's busiest rail-cargo junctions. Below: a static steam engine stands under an old-style semaphore; behind it a local train serving the line to Sandomierz; across to the left a works train engaged in track-laying.

Here's something I've not seen before - a Düwag Wadloper diesel railbus operated by SKPL (Stowarzyszenie Kolejowych Przewozów Lokalnych - an association formed to provide local rail services). It is just arriving from Tomaszów Mazowiecki along a line re-opened to passenger transport in December 2021. Good to see this happening.

It was only here in Skarżysko-Kamienna that I realised that I hadn’t really needed to go quite so far south, or got up quite so early. I could have caught a later train from Chynów to Radom, because the fastest connection from S-K to Rzeszów was not via Kiece and Kraków, but via Lublin. So I caught the Morcinek express (Wrocław-Lublin) at S-K which back-tracked me all the way to Radom, and thence onto Lublin. The ticket, bought ten minutes before departure, was SuperPromo; a mere 14.00 złotys (£2.65!) for 162 kilometres (100 miles for less than the cost of an advance ticket from West Ealing to Ealing Broadway, £2.90). From Lublin, I caught the Roztocze, a TLK train consisting of Czech railways rolling stock – a train from Lublin to Bohumin (in Czechia), via Rzeszów, Kraków and Katowice). This train (unlike the delayed Morcinek) arrived nicely on time in Rzeszów. But more on that in my next post.

This time last year:
Science, Religion, Magic and Consciousness

This time four years ago:
The house on the działka, coming on

This time five years ago:
Autumn comes early

This time six years ago:
Kriegslok passes through Jeziorki

This time ten years ago:
A little way west of Jeziorki

This time 11 years ago:
The Old Sailor's Tale - part II 

This time 12 years ago:
Prague-Jeziorki-Moscow

This time 13 years ago:
The passing of Lt. Cmdr. Tadeusz Lesisz 

This time 15 years ago:
Summer ends, autumn begins