Well, here it is - open at last, two months late - a halfway house, better than nothing, but is it the best way to spend 7 million złotys to foster public transport? The money could have been spent buying three full-electric fourth-generation Solaris Urbino 12 buses, each capable of carrying 85 passengers. Instead, we have parking for 138 cars and 40 bicycles.
Warsaw transport operator WTP says that the facility is aimed at inhabitants of this part of "Ursynów and Piaseczno, Góra Kalwaria, Konstancin, Tarczyn, Prażmów and Lesznowola". The first four are already well-served by public transport; why someone from Góra Kalwaria would want to drive all the way over to W-wa Jeziorki to park their car and go on from here into town is beyond me - they could have caught a train from Góra Kalwaria and avoided all the jams through Piaseczno. I will admit that Tarczyn, Prażmów and Lesznowola have terrible public transport provision, nothing more than a handful of 'L' (for local) buses that go nowhere in particular.
However, 138 drivers are now tempted to drive their cars down ulica Karczunkowska who might otherwise have... Have what? Driven all the way into town? Left their cars by the station on the muddy verge of ul. Gogolińska on the other side of the tracks? It will be interesting to see the P+R once it's in use and people have become accustomed to it. Will it be full of number plates from powiat Piaseczno (WPI), Grójec (WGR) and Grodzisk Mazowieckie (WGM)? Or just the local ones from dzielnica Ursynów (WN)?
Due in March 2023 (original date: December 2022), the extension of SKM services (Szybka Kolej Miejska - 'rapid urban railway') to Piaseczno should mean another train or two an hour stopping at W-wa Jeziorki, which I hope will tempt more people away from cars.
However, the completion of the S7's stretch B (Lesznowola-Tarczyn) will act the opposite way; currently, the unfinished stretch interrupts the smooth flow of traffic into and out of Warsaw from the south, causing jams and frustration around the Lesznowola junction in particular. Once fully open, I guess many drivers will just pile into Warsaw rather than bother with a railway interchange.
Left: the ticketing system is not yet working, as of Thursday 3 November at around 11:50. SYSTEM W FAZIE TESTÓW - 'the system is in test phase'. A handful of cars using the new facility (presumably unticketed), around 70 still parked up across the tracks on the verge of ul. Gogolińska.
One hope I have is that the bus loop by W-wa Jeziorki station will get another bus to use it. Now that the L39 no longer serves W-wa Jeziorki (as of last month), the investment in building the loop seems wasted. Just the 809 calls at PKP Jeziorki 03, Mondays to Fridays during school term only. Now the P+R has been activated, it makes sense to connect another bus to this stop, one that links the railway line to the Metro.
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