Using it so as not to lose it

I have written before many times about the joys of Wars, Poland's catering company on rails. I make a point of using its services whenever I can, on the basis that its loss - or even its loss of quality - would pain me.

I'm back from Kielce, the journey from Chynów via Warka being a real pleasure these days, travelling on modern Dart trains, with a guaranteed buffet car. 

But buffet cars are not equal to each other... In recent weeks, I have travelled to Łódź, Kraków, Rzeszów, Wrocław and Kielce, using the services of Wars wherever possible, and I'd like to make the following observations. 

Firstly, there are big differences in the quality of service, mostly outside the control of the bar staff. Items might be missing off the menu - there was no chilli con carne on the way down to Kielce, there were no Jan Olbracht craft beers on the train from Wrocław, no hot cabbage, only a cold cabbage salad on two of the trains; and there were paper plates and recyclable wooden cutlery on the Kraków train (apparently there was no water for the on-board dishwasher). And prices are going up. 

Today I paid 59 złotys for schabowy (pork schnitzel) with braised cabbage and boiled potatoes with dill, served with a craft beer, this combo cost 51 złotys last December, and the falling pound means that's now £11.75 compared to £9.35.

And today, I was the only person tucking into a hot lunch - or indeed consuming anything - in the Wars compartment as the train headed north out of Kielce, despite it being half past one. Usually, one has to wait for a seat to become vacant, there being ten seats/three tables in the dining area. I hope this doesn't lead to that vicious spiral of rising prices - falling demand - lower quality of service - even less demand - eventually leading, as it did in the UK, to the end of the restaurant car as we know it. Replaced by a stand-up buffet serving crisps, Mars bars, Coke and tinned lager. If you're lucky.

So - here we are. The joys of Wars. Brought to me at the table, on a porcelain plate, with metal cutlery, with a craft beer, a schabowy lunch, below. Huge, piping hot, very tasty. I could hear the pork fillet being battered with a meat mallet back in the galley, then I could hear it sizzling away on the frying pan. Sadly, no glass glass with brewery logo, just a half-litre plastic beaker (can't have everything I want!), but otherwise ten out of ten.

As the ale cheers me from the inside and the scenery glides past outside, the hot, tasty meal takes on transcendental properties that mere stationary food cannot provide. Between Kielce and Suchedniów, the line snakes through the Góry Świętokrzyskie hills, much of it over 1,000 ft (304m) above sea level, offering the best scenery on the entire Warsaw-Radom-Kielce-Kraków route.

So - if you ever plan to travel around Poland, take the train, and - wherever possible - eat on the train! It's worth every zloty, and there's a danger that this particular joy may disappear if not enough folks indulge in it.

UPDATE 25.11.2023: just days after I travelled from Katowice to Warsaw on the Polonia express  (part of the journey in the restaurant car) PKP InterCity announces that as of the December timetable change, neither the Polonia nor the Moravia international expresses will include a restaurant car. Bastards. That decision has put an end to any plans I had as to visiting Vienna by train. Over nine hours without a hot meal? Surviving on sandwiches and crisps? NO THANKS!

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