Arriving at Lublin, I had about 20 minutes before my train for Rzeszów. Long enough to have a look around the station. Below: this is the most absurd station in Poland when it comes to platform numeration. In the UK, it's simple; one platform edge, one platform number. In Poland, there are platforms (perony) and tracks (tory), which correspond to platform edges. These are not numbered for the passenger's convenience, but according to some arcane practice known only to railway workers. How can it possibly be that Track 52 is next to Track 82? This kind of 'sod-the-passenger' bollocks has caused me to miss more than one tight connection, especially in Poznań Główny, where this happened twice, with me being unable to navigate through a morass of stupid track and platform numbers. This is compounded by the printed timetables referring first to the peron number then the tor number (1-5), while the station announcers do it the other way round (pociąg osobowy odjedzie z toru piątego przy peronie pierwszym).
Below: my train from Lublin to Rzeszów happened to be a Czech one - with a Polish name. The Roztocze runs from Lublin all the way to Bohumín in Czechia via Rzeszów, Kraków and Katowice, with České dráhy rolling stock pulled by a PKP loco. Again, like the Skarżysko-Lublin leg, the ticket was Super Promo and laughably cheap - just 19.00zł for 213km (£3.65 for 130 miles - an advance London-to-Birmingham Super Off-Peak single is five times more expensive at £16.50). Note the platform number - Platform 3, Track 55. Track 51 is visible on the right.
There's a certain linguistic frisson about boarding a foreign train in one's own country, and the Czech language sounds slightly comical to the Polish ear (and vice versa, it is said).
For some reason, cross-border trains have carriage numbers in three digits. Domestic InterCity carriages use numbers 1 up to 16; I'm not sure what this is all about. Signage on train is in Czech, so I can only guess. "
Výstraha" sounds like '
wystraszyć - to scare - so therefore 'warning'; "
Svítí-li červené světlo" sounds like '
Świeci się czerwone światło' - the red light is on, the next word I guess means 'door', but the rest I can't work out. Sadly, no buffet car.
The train stopped at many stations along the way; some were towns know to me, (Stalowa Wola, Leżajsk or Łańcut) - some were tiny unknown places (Zaklików or Nowa Sarzyna). Still at this price, one can't complain about the slow ride - three hours, so 70km/h (38mph average).
At last, the train arrived at Rzeszów station, which
I visited last three years ago. OK, so we had Covid and the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the station is
still half-way through a major remont. Very little had changed over the intervening years – the footbridge had gone, the new tunnel was partially open, the forecourt was a total muddy mess and pedestrian signage piss-poor.
Below: ready in another four years? Progress is dismal.
The next day, my return to Chynów was more straightforward - the
Kochanowski express from Rzeszów to Warsaw (an electric Dart InterCity train no more changing locomotives at Lublin at least, just a change of direction of travel!)
Being a Dart, the
Kochanowski has a dining car, so I could enjoy the classic
schabowy served hot and fresh, with a Jan Olbracht craft ale.
Below: this is Polish rail travel at its best.
I toyed with the idea of alighting this train at Dęblin, and rather than going all the way into Warsaw and the out again, simply taking the shortish trip from Dęblin to Radom and then another shortish trip from Radom to Chynów. But looking at the timetable apps on my phone, I could see that the Warsaw way would get me back to the działka 20 minutes earlier than via Radom, despite being 40km longer.
And so, there we have it. Polish trains are cheap, clean, comfortable, relatively punctual (only one of the five trains I caught was delayed - the Morcinek, which arrived in Lublin 22 minutes late). Only a motorbike ride in high summer (avoiding main roads) would have been preferable. Below: pylons, somewhere between Łańcut and Leżajsk, through the window of the dining car. The dream-state of rail travel.
This time five years ago:
I envy your railway catering. Even first class catering on UK trains (except for GWR's handful of restaurant cars) would be substantially improved if Greggs the bakers managed it!
ReplyDeleteMaybe the weird platform numbers are derived from a signalling diagram? I can't think of any logical reason for such absurdity.
I can see you had your good self carried by rail through my country – Kraśnik! I make the journey every week. You don’t mention the station, which is understandable. Easy to miss. PKP doesn’t mention it either on its signs on the Kochanowski train (see photo on your phone). Between Lublin and Rzeszów, there are no stops! Well, there is Kraśnik, actually, where squirrels leap out of trees (suicide-related) and the local councillors have banned 5G suspecting it is short for LGBTQ, which they have also banned, although the local football team is called Tęcza (Rainbow). The line, so called Route 68, was modernised by PIS for EU money a few years ago – a single track was replaced with a single electrified track! The result is that, in the 70s when I travelled on steam trains on this route, it took 35 min to reach Lublin. Today it takes anything between 50min and 2hr on local Przewozy Regionalne trains (pantograph-assisted and all) depending on how much action the passing loops get. A period train station building was knocked down and replaced with a tin portacabin, hailed “Gateway to Kraśnik” by PKP. Unfinished a year ago, it has never been opened. The roof is missing. Other than that, and other than lung-busting smog and soot, best place on earth to live! Where you can truly say: been there, smelt it, met no tourists.
ReplyDeleteOh, I can explain the track numbering conundrum. Say, you’re at a train station listening to a tannoy announcement: Train for … pulling into … platform … track etc. Let’s be honest, it’s a tense few seconds and a lot of info to process! With bits drowned out by ambient noise. Passengers are bound to get platform numbers mixed up with track numbers. If you make track number wildly different from platform numbers, the folks will keep them separate in their heads. Simple.
@WHP
ReplyDeleteWhenever I can, I use Polish railway catering on the basis of 'use it or lose it'. In the UK, I have to dive back in memories to the late '70s/early '80s for dining cars with hot food served on china plates. Platform numbers - this requires the inside knowledge of railway employees to unscramble. All I know is that Track 1 and Track 2 are 'through tracks'. It's all bollocks and needs to be changed.
@Jacek Koba
Many thanks for local insights and for MMSs! Train times from Lublin to Kraśnik, according to Rozklad-pkp-pl ('the Decomposition of PKP') are from 40-45mins on Regio trains and 27 mins for the non-stop InterCity or TLK trains. Of course, delays and cancellations... Opóźnienie może ulec zmianie = 'Delay may succumb to change' - as ever!