No longer the place to live

Twenty years ago, life in Jeziorki was sweet - an ideal place to live, close enough to travel to work in central Warsaw every day, to be in the office by nine am, yet a quiet, green area. Quite the place to raise children. Since then, 'Zielony Ursynów' ('Green Ursynów' - the part of the Warsaw district of Ursynów lying to the west of ulica Puławska and the Las Kabacki forest) had been developing slowly, but that pace has accelerated rapidly in recent years.

The opening of the S7 extension (to Lesznowola last August, and all the way to Grójec last month, thus linking the northern and southern bits of the S7) has vastly increased the amount of traffic pouring through Jeziorki. 

Below: ulica Karczunkowska, peak morning rush hour. See where that tanker is in the middle of the photo - on either side of the road, you will see... no pavement. Traffic is up maybe tenfold, maybe more, but there is still no f*cking pavement. This road is not scheduled for an upgrade until 2026. Meanwhile, there is a vastly greater risk of pedestrians or cyclists being killed or injured along this stretch, not to mention the extra noise and pollution. Just behind that tanker is the junction with ul. Nawłocka (to the left), and access to the Biedronka supermarket and W-wa Jeziorki Park+Ride (to the right). Trying to turn into Karczunkowska is a nightmare, so the local residents have petitioned for a roundabout to be placed here - I hope it happens, as it will have the additional benefit of slowing down traffic as it comes charging down from the viaduct. Reminder - the speed limit here is 50km/h.

That's just the through traffic. Jeziorki is also growing organically, with developers moving in to build new estates. A new house generates one and half new cars for the neighbourhood. Below: land for sale, Jeziorki - 2.1 hectares, enough to build 24 to 30 terraced houses; once sold and developed, another 36 to 45 new cars for ul. Trombity. They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.

Below: one of four new estates on ul. Trombity, this one of ten houses, just completed, and up for sale. 

Talking of through traffic - I feel very sorry for the residents of ul. Pozytywki and ul. Cymbalistów; these two roads are used as rat-runs by motorists wanting to avoid the traffic lights at the end of ul. Karczunkowska to turn right towards Mysiadło, Nowa Iwiczna, Piaseczno and all points south. Despite the 30km/h speed limit, there's a constant stream of cars charging down these streets, heedless of the speed-bumps, tearing past the kindergarten and the new housing estate on Cymbalistów. The answer here is to create a Woonerf - the Dutch solution to the problem of through traffic tearing through quiet residential areas. My solution - the działka, 26km to the south, 24 minutes by train from W-wa Jeziorki to Chynów. From Chynów station I can walk to the działka without fear, often without being passed by a single car. And above all, peace, quiet, clean country air*.

Below: elegy for a lost suburb - Karczunkowska in 2007, five years after we moved to Jeziorki, 12 years before the viaduct crossed the tracks, 16 years before the S7 extension was completed. This is the reverse angle of the shot in the top photo. As busy as it got back then, I had to wait a bit to get the cars into the composition.

The inexorable lava flow of development will take time to reach Jakubowizna; it is happening. Three new houses have appeared on my street since I bought the działka in 2017, but each one is detached, and two of them are bungalows. I cannot see the same kind of development that blights Jeziorki - or worse, Zgorzała, Zamienie and Nowa Wola on the other side of Warsaw's city limits - whole fields being turned into row after row of terraced houses with no asphalt or amenities.

* Country air pollutants: diesel fumes from tractors, chemicals used to spray orchards, and smoke from wood- or coal-fired domestic heating. But at least there's a thousand times less traffic on the roads.

This time last year:
Textures of Childhood

This time two years ago:
Stupendous sunset, Sułkowice

This time seven years ago:
Politics - the importance of fact.

This time eight years ago:
Rural Mazovian toponyms

This time nine years ago:
Carrying the weight on both shoulders

This time ten years ago:
Railway history - the big picture

This time 12 years ago:
A new lick of paint for W-wa Powiśle

This time 13 years ago:
The ingredients of success

The Long Review of 2022 (Pt. IV)

Having covered Europe, the UK and the world, now a look at my home turf - Jeziorki and Jakubowizna. Here's it's all about investment and progress.

Jeziorki first. The S7 extension (section A) opened from the end of the S79 down to Lesznowola in the summer. A mere six and half kilometres of it. Section B of the extension (Lesznowola - Tarczyn) is expected to open in 2023. It will mean that the S7 will stretch from Warsaw down towards Kraków as far as the border of Małopolska province

The S7 opening has had the entirely expected effect of dumping a mass of traffic down ulica Karczunkowska. Where once cars came in small strings of five or six, reflecting a traffic-light change on the junction with ul. Puławska, there are now endless torrents using this pavement-free road as a connection to Węzeł Zamienie. The new traffic volume means that using this road as a pedestrian when the adjoining fields are covered with snow or are muddy bogs has become almost impossible. We learnt the news this year that finally, a pavement for ul. Karczunkowska has been approved by the local authority. It will be ready in... 2026. 

One huge improvement is the opening (at last!) of bus lanes along ul. Puławska. It means that a bus ride from Metro Wilanowska to Kaczunkowska now takes 25 minutes at peak times, rather than the 40+ minutes it would have taken before. Added to this is my newly acquired Senior's Warsaw Card, a mere 50zł (£9.35) for the whole year, which gives me access to all buses, trams, Metro, Koleje Mazowieckie, SKM and WKD trains right out to the borders of Zone 2. Not only can I flop onto any bus anywhere, but I can get to Zalesie Górne on Koleje Mazowieckie trains for free, and pay the 5.72zł over-60s discount fare from Zalesie Górne to Chynów, cutting the price of a round trip into central Warsaw to a mere 11.44zł (£2.15). 

With all the new stations including Warka Miasto opened and all the existing stations modernised, the Warsaw-Radom railway line is almost up to speed - the final touch will be the GSM-R mobile communication system for trains; when that's operational, trains will be allowed to speed up to a maximum of 160km/h on the line (current maximum permissible velocity is 120km/h). This, however, is not expected until 2024. Still, things are moving faster - the quickest train between W-wa Jeziorki to Chynów now takes 24 minutes, an improvement over the 31 minutes pre-modernisation.

But things will get worse before they get better... the modernisation of the Warsaw transversal railway line is about to get under way; Warsaw West (W-wa Zachodnia) is still unfinished with much inconvenience to come. Below: Platforms 3 and 4 at Zachodnia are currently disappearing. Platforms 5, 6, 7 and 8 are almost ready. Platform 2 (to the left) working hard right now, serving all east- and westbound local trains.

I get the feeling after 25 years in Poland that the whole country is a continuous work in progress that will never reach closure; something or other always has to be undergoing a remont.

Back to the S7 extension. Stretch B, from Lesznowola to Tarczyn will be open sometime in the first half of 2023, finally connecting Warsaw to Radom and Kielce by expressway, which comes to an end at the border of Małopolska province. And all the way down to Kraków within a few more years.

On the local front, little change in Jakubowizna, other than the bottom end of my street (the bit that's in Chynów) being officially named ulica Owocowa (lit. 'fruity street'), a no-through road sign on the stump of road parallel to the railway line running up the hill, and another medium-tension electricity pylon replaced by a more modern one. A new house is being built on my street, a single-story dwelling. Work started in the summer. Ulica Torowa outside Chynów station now has proper drainage and a new (first) layer of asphalt meaning no more edge-to-edge puddles when it rains. Sadly, the J&B Snack Bar closed for business this summer - the best burgers in the poviat; a new supermarket (a Dino) has opened at the far end of Chynów. Disappointing choice, but cheaper than Top Market.

And more and more orchards being fitted with anti-hailstone netting - a reaction to the increased frequency of extreme-weather events brought about by climate change! Temperature forecast for New Year's Day is +14C.

This time last year:
S2 tunnel under Ursynów opens

This time two years ago:
The first year of Covid-19

This time three years ago:
Last night in Ealing, twenty-teens
[A strangely prophetic post, suitably dream-like in quality]

This time four years ago:
The Day the World Didn't End

This time seven years ago:
Hybrid driving - the verdict

This time nine years ago:
Pitshanger Lane in the sun

This time 13 years ago:
Miserable, grey, wet London

This time 14 years ago:
Parrots in Ealing

This time 15 years ago:
Heathrow to Okęcie

Jeziorki Park+Ride finally opens

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.

This time last year:
Are you serious about going green?

This time two years ago:
Nail-biting walk

This time four years ago:
Insights in the search for consciousness

This time five years ago:
Loving Vincent - review

This time nine years ago:
UFO credibility test

This time ten years ago:
Junction ready for road to unbuilt sports centre

This time 11 years ago:
Park nad Książecem - Vistula escarpment, beautiful autumn

This time 14 years ago:
Obama wins US presidential election

The S7 extension opens (well, part of it anyway)

As got off the train at W-wa Jeziorki, I heard a disturbing sound. What I heard was the sound of a thousand lost motorists, seeking Kraków. But they'll not find Kraków. Because it's too early. Sections A and C of the S7 extension might be ready, but section B is two years behind schedule.

This evening, around six, the barriers came down and traffic was allowed, for the first time, to drive onto the southbound carriageways of the S7 at Węzeł Lotnisko (airport junction). But only as far as Węzeł Lesznowola - and there, the automotive fun comes to an end. The junction, which was meant to connect to a new local road, just drops cars off at a pair of stumps going nowhere. The new local road is not even a plan at this stage. And so motorists have to drive around the byways of Nowa Wola, looking for a way to connect with the existing DK7, that eventually connects with Section C of the extension somewhere north of Tarczyn. Sub-optimal if you are heading for Kraków. But fine for local inhabitants. Section B is said will be 'passable' (ie. just one lane open in each direction as the other carriageway is completed) between Lesznowola and Tarczyn later this year. Good luck with that.

Below: looking towards Warsaw. Note the separated carriageways - the one to the left carries three lanes with traffic from the eastbound S2, the one from the right carries two lanes with traffic from the southbound S79 and the westbound S2 (so guess which carriageway will be more congested). They merge south of the viaduct that I'm standing on.

Below: the viaduct over the S7 - note the direction 'Kraków' still taped over.

Below: the slip road to the southbound carriageway also denies Kraków.

Below: Action sunset. For the first time, traffic passes under the viaduct. It's been a little over two and half years from the beginning of works - February 2020

The opening of the service roads on either side of the S7 will be of use to the local community. I must say, however, I mourn the passing of that short window when I could walk along them, unbothered by traffic. All good things must come to an end.

Two years ago:
Infrastructure delays everywhere

This time three years ago:
Let's stop spitting at the other tribe

[today, I'm still more inclined to say "fuck 'em".]

This time four years ago:
Progress on the Działka

This time eight years ago:
Changes to Poland's traffic regulations

This time 11 years ago:
Teasers in the Polish-English linguistic space

This time 12 years ago:
Summer slipping away

This time 13 years ago:
To the airport by bike

This time 14 years ago:
My translation of Tuwim's Lokomotywa

As I walked out one midsummer's morning

The sun rose over Warsaw today at 04:14, it's earliest in the year (indeed it rises at 04:14 from the 12th to the 23rd of June; the latest sunrise - at 21:01 - is on 21st to the 28th June, making the 22nd the longest day). Making the most of the public holiday (Corpus Christi), I woke up this morning just after 3am, dressed and ate breakfast, leaving the house in Jeziorki bound for Jakubowizna on foot. Temperature was a cool 9C, thin jacket required. 

Below: in case anyone wants to know what quarter past three in the morning looks like in suburban Warsaw in mid-June, here we are - view from my bedroom window. Untweaked in Photoshop - out of the box. Light mist on the meadow behind the house.

Below: end of my street, junction with ulica Karczunkowska. I'm on my way. No traffic - public holiday as well as being really early!

Below: the pond on ul. Pozytywki, ducks and coots still asleep. Nothing stirs. One dog barks nervously.

Below: still incomplete, the new Orthodox church on ul. Puławska catches the rising sun. This is Warsaw's Hagia Sophia, belonging to the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church (nothing to do with the war criminal Patriach Kirill). Modelled on the one in Constantinople. It stands just metres from Warsaw's southern border (this side of the treeline).

Onward through Mysiadło to Piaseczno, the Slough of the East. Not my favourite Polish town, though I must say, that like many places right now, it is currently undergoing a thoroughgoing modernisation. Below: work under way, roads closed - an early bus runs empty across (Piaseczno's) ul. Puławska. Photo taken one hour after leaving home. I look forward to seeing Piaseczno when all the work's been finished. Looks promising. Proper provisions for cyclists and pedestrians.

Onward, south to the edge of Piaseczno, over the footbridge crossing the river Jeziorka (nothing to do with Jeziorki) and into Żabieniec, still noted for its fishponds (farmed carp) and the freshwater fish institute (Instytut Rybactwa Śródlądowego). The ponds are a landmark when flying into Warsaw Okęcie airport, to the left of the flightpath.

Having passed through Żabieniec, I enter the Chojnów landscape park (Chojnowski Park Krajobrazowy) - the best part of the trip. After a while, the footpath joins the Gościniec Wareki (the archaic word gościniec is akin to the English 'highway' in the historical context - think of 'highwaymen'). The road runs south; to the west the fishponds, and the Warsaw-Radom railway line - audible but not visible. Below: bliss - two hours' walk from home. About one-third of the way.

Having crossed the road to Zalesie Górne, the Gościniec Warecki becomes asphalted. Cars are mercifully rare - on this seven-kilometre stretch, I saw just two (and two cyclists, two dog walkers and one deer). Below: the curious settlement of Nowinki (lit. 'Little Tidings' or 'Little Novelties').

What makes Nowinki (at least its northern end) unusual is the character of the buildings - działki set back from the road, modest wooden shacks mostly, neglected, yet fenced off with concrete posts and barbed wire, surrounded by tall trees. The hallmarks of a communist-era enclave - a rural retreat for middle-ranking apparatchiks. Having retired and or died off, their działki have become terminally  shabby. No one claiming them. Further on up the road, new houses are appearing - brick-built and without the paranoid fencing.

Time for a second breakfast and a ten-minute rest at the three-hour mark between Nowinki and the next village along - Krępa, at the southern edge of the forest. The Gościniec Warecki gives way to ul. Długa. Krępa was much prettier, brighter and better looked-after than Nowinki - pavements, notice-board, well-kept houses. 

Leaving the forest behind, my next waypoint is the Skierniewice-Łuków railway line, which crosses the main Warsaw-Radom line at Czachówek. Like the locals, I avoid a half-kilometre detour via a road tunnel under the tracks by using an unofficial but well-worn path over them. Having just seen (in the distance) two passing container trains heading east-west and west-east, I knew the coast would be clear for a long while. In the distance, the Czachówek diamond.

South of the line, I feel I'm almost home in Jakubowizna. But it's still a long walk to Sułkowice. On one side of the road flows the Czarna river, floodbanks on either side protecting adjacent lands. Coming up to 9am, but still very few cars on the road. Below: a footbridge over the Czarna, leading to Czachówek Południowy station.

Below: another curiously named settlement along my route - Kiełbaska (lit. 'Little Sausage'). Untouched by progress.

Soon, I arrive in Sułkowice - famous for being home to Poland's police-dog training school. Past the village and station, the DK50 viaduct on the horizon means I'm no more than 20 minutes from home on the działka. Rushing through (non-stop between Warka and Piaseczno) is the 'San' express.

It's good to know that I can get to the działka under my own steam - ended up spending no money today (all shops along the way firmly shut) - walking 26.4 kilometres (16.4 miles) with six or seven kilo on my back.

Arriving on the działka, time for a wash, a beer - and a nap (which ended up being two hours long!). But then I only slept five hours, so I needed it. A total over over walked 36,500 paces today.

This time seven years ago:
Central Warsaw rail update

This time ten years ago:
Poland's night train network

This time 11 years ago:
On a musical note

This time 12 years ago:
Standing stones

This time 15 years ago:
The year nears its zenith

More blues and greens from early summer

Blue and green continue to dominate - top temperatures exceeding 25C, but interspersed with rain in reasonable amounts. The sublime summer. I feel like I want to go to one specific place - so off I set.

Below: the fields between Jeziorki (in Warsaw), and - in the distance - Mysiadło (not in Warsaw), the treeline marking the border. Crops coming up nicely. With the geopolitical situation as it is, the worst thing that could happen to agriculture is flooding or drought.

From Mysiadło to Nowa Iwiczna, I walk along the track of the old sidings for the agglomerate ramp (below), ripped up to make way for one housing estate (didn't happen); the area was then earmarked for an even bigger housing project (again didn't happen). So, lots of recreational land remains.

 Below: how it once looked here, with rails in situ. Photo taken February 2008, nearer the Jeziorki end.

Below: at the other end, in a small tongue of Zgorzała that crosses the tracks, a small development of about a dozen houses is being built.

Below: across ulica Krasickiego in Nowa Iwiczna, where the unelectrified coal train* line curves away from the main Warsaw-Radom line. A Warsaw-bound Koleje Mazowieckie Impuls train rushes by. These trains pick up a nice turn of speed, necessitating longer stops at stations to fit the same timetables as the old stock.

Below: I reach my destination - the pedestrian level crossing across the coal line. Photo taken from Nowa Iwiczna; beyond the houses in the immediate front line facing the tracks lies Stara Iwiczna. A sudden yearning to visit this spot led me here.

*Just as I'm indexing 'coal train' under Labels, John Coltrane's tenor sax solo kicks in Miles Davis's So What on YouTube

This time last year:

Warsaw West station under construction

This time seven years ago:
Loakes in Warsaw

This time eight years ago:
Gdynia, on the beach, six am

This time nine years ago:
Polish doctors in UK offer new healthcare model

This time ten years ago:
Football in Warsaw

This time 11 years ago:
Era becomes T-Mobile

This time 12 years ago:
Warsaw-Góra Kalwaria-Pilawa rail link closed

This time 13 years ago:
Marsh harrier, golden airliner over Jeziorki

This time 14 years ago:
Bus blaze on way to town

This time 15 years ago:
A beautiful, stormy twilight

Hills... I gotta have hills.

Central Mazovia is pancake-flat. The horizon is at the same level whichever way you turn. In this, it's like Iowa, where to quote Bill Bryson "if you stand on two telephone directories, you have A View". Which generally, I don't mind from a flashback-familiarity point of view, those big skies remind me of the prairies... But the flatness means that hills are at a premium - even temporary, man-made hills...

Seeking a higher vantage point is instinctive in animals. Felusia's favourite place in the kitchen for example, is perched on top of the coffee machine - the highest point in the room - an ideal spot from which to observe human activity. Scrambling to the top of a man-made hill around these flat terrains to have a look around, a rest and a beer, has been a pleasant local activity in recent years, made possible by the civil engineering works going on in the neighbourhood.

Gone now is the ballast mountain (across the tracks opposite from the Jeziorki end of ulica Kórnicka). It stood here between 2016 and 2020 when PKP PLK was modernising the Warsaw-Radom railway line, and afforded good views to the north and south-east. Below: looking across at Jeziorki, the 'up' line awaiting new rails.

Gone too are the highest soil mountains that once stood astride the S7 extension works. Below, the one next to Węzeł Zamienie, between Jeziorki and Dawidy Bankowe. Photo taken on 3 May 2021 - amazing progress since then. Sadly, without this view-yielding mountain.

Below: view from the top of the soil mountain at the northern end of the S7 extension, where it meets the S79. 

Alas - these high places, and the views from them - have gone. These were favoured places of mine to scramble to the top of and enjoy a beer around sunset - the golden time of day.

It seems that hills are at a premium - even modest ones. Between Zgorzała and Zamienie, all the hills associated with the S7 extension works have been levelled with the ground - with two exceptions. Both are on private land (situated on either side of the expressway); both are now fenced in. Presumably the owners simply asked the builders not to remove them - and the builders happily obliged. Win-win.Builder saves costs of removal, landowner has a Feature. Below: the hill on the east side of the S7. Plant a few trees, make a path, bench at the top, make good - nice. [There are also two such man-made hills, leftovers from civil-engineering works, by the ponds in Jeziorki. The local 'ziggurats'.]

But there's still one range of soil hills remaining, west of the railway tracks a little way north of W-wa Jeziorki station. 

Sadly, although extensive in area, they are not very high (about four-and-half metres at the highest), but they are easy and safe to climb.

Below: the view is OK, nothing spectacular (certainly not when compared to the 12-metre-high hill that stood next to where Węzeł Zamienie now is, second photo from the top), but at least it's here and above ground level. But for how long? Until a new viaduct extends ul. Dawidowska across the railway? If so, it will be a while.

Below: my brother has rendered my photo taken from the Ballast Mountain looking north (seen originally here) in the style of German artist Anselm Kiefer, catching the atmosphere of the late afternoon in winter with a light frost and a dusting of snow.

The end-of-day pilgrimage requires a destination; the destination requires a vantage point, a spot for contemplation while watching the setting sun. 

The motorbiking season is soon to start, and with it the opportunity to explore further afield, beyond the reach of public transport.

This time last year:
Flashback to a Dream - subconsciousness and memory

This time 11 years ago:
'Old school' = pre-war

This time 12 years ago:
Britain chooses a coalition government

This time 13 years ago:
Landing over Ursynów

This time 14 years ago:
On being assertive in Poland

Park + Ride for Jeziorki - at last.

Well, it's been a long time coming, but it's finally happening - W-wa Jeziorki station will be getting a proper Park + Ride. Work began in February - sewerage and drainage works, now the above-ground part begins to take shape. The P+R will have space for 136 cars of which six will be reserved for disabled drivers. There will be covered bicycle parking for 40 bikes, and charging points for electric vehicles and bicycles. Planned date of completion - September 2022. Cost - over 5.9m złotys (£1.1m). A better investment for Warsaw's public transport than, say, five Solaris Urbino 12 buses?

The idea is for motorists to drive into from outlying towns and villages such as Lesznowola, Prażmów and Tarczyn and park here - the first station within Warsaw's Zone 1 for onward travel by train into the city centre. This will make more sense once a) SKM ('rapid urban rail') services start serving Piaseczno this December and b) the S7 extension is open.

Below: looking east from the stairs leading from the viaduct to the 'up' platform

Below: Official visualisation of the completed project, seen from above the viaduct.

A regulatory must on every Polish building site, however humble - the information board. Contact details for the investor, contractor, building inspector etc. This board describes the investment in Polish as 'Parkuj i jedź', yet the acronym PiJ is never, ever used - rather abbreviated in  English as Park & Ride (usually styled as P+R). 

Meanwhile, train services are getting faster. On Wednesday, I took a train from Chynów to Jeziorki that was advertised (and indeed took) as taking 24 minutes. That's seven minutes less than it used to. Journey times into town will be shorter once modernisation work on W-wa Zachodnia is completed.

Below: the way it looked, back in 2008, when drivers started leaving their cars on the muddy verge by the station to take the train into town. New station, new viaduct - the character of W-wa Jeziorki has changed totally since then.

This time last year:
Decimalisation and determination

This time four years ago:
God, an Englishman, orders his Eden thus:

This time seven years ago:
I buy a Nikon Coolpix A

This time eight years ago:
More about the Ladder of Authority

This time nine years ago:
By bike, south of Warsaw

This time 11 years ago:
Functionalist architecture in Warsaw

This time 12 years ago:
What's the Polish for 'to bully'?

This time 13 years ago:
Making plans

This time 14 years ago:
The setting sun stirs my soul

This time 15 years ago:
Rain ends the drought

Lenten photo catch-up

Lent coincided with the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, days of foreboding and unease. A couple of trips to town, several trips to the działka, and just the one business trip - to Łódź.

Below: the S7 is coming along nicely, but no new milestones since the opening of the viaduct between Jeziorki and Dawidy Bankowe.

 

Below: Łódź - 19th century wooden building, now listed. The centre of Łódź is changing - this is less than 500m from the EC1 and Brama Miasta developments, nearing completion. 

Given a few more years, Łódź will have turned into a splendid city, a mix of the ultra-modern and carefully restored heritage buildings, old factories and palaces. Below: corner of ul. Targowa and Nawrot.

Below: old sign on Platform 3 of W-wa Zachodnia station, mid-modernisation. Platforms 8, 7 and 6 are nearly complete, the suburban platforms will be last to be changed. Sign says 'to alien persons entry is prohibited'.

Below: Zamienie, sunset, approaching equinox. Looking west along the tree-lined ulica Zakładowa that ran through what was the Bio-Vet vaccine plant; after it closed the land was bought by developers, who have built many hundreds of new houses and flats here. As usual, amenities - including proper roads, pavements and public transport - have been neglected.

Back in the garden, Felusia makes a determined run for the garage door and lunchtime. Here I must note the unusually settled fine weather - between 10 and 26 March, there was hardly a single cloud in the sky.

On the działka, my Ukrainian guests, just about to set off to a new life in London after a fortnight in Jakubowizna. Maxim, his mum and grandmother behind him. 

First of April for some fresh snow, which fell heavily through the night, giving a thick cover the next day.

Below: by the 3rd, the snow clouds had passed, a gorgeous day. I visited the działka, and walking from the station the long way via Machcin II, became the first human to tread in this virgin snow. Deep and hard to talk through! Plenty of hare tracks though.

Below: my first stork sighting of this year, 10 April, Jeziorki.

This time last year:

Qualia memories - Edwardian railways

This time six years ago:

The great taste of Polish India Pale Ales

This time seven years ago:
Lublin - pearl of Poland's East

This time nine years ago:
70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

This time ten years ago:
Tarkovsky's Stalker: a zone of my own

This time 11 years ago:
Warsaw's big billboards

This time 13 years ago:
Pace of development falters