Twanged

Nowa Iwiczna and its railway crossings is a bane for rail passengers as well as for motorists. The level crossing there on ulica Krasickiego has the power to hold you up for an insufferably long time. Since the completion of the Warsaw-Radom line modernisation and the opening of SKM services to Piaseczno, the level crossing is a source of local frustration and anger.

Consider the situation I encountered two weeks ago. It's twenty past nine in the evening. The lights start flashing, the bells start clanging, the barriers are coming down. I know that there's at least three minutes before a train actually crosses the road, so on reaching the barrier, I get on hands and knees (twice) to get under  each of the two barriers to reach the southbound platform. Crossing the tracks, I can see distant no train lights from either direction... And about a minute and half later, there it is – the 21:23 Koleje Mazowieckie service to Warsaw. The queue of cars on either side of the tracks waits for the barriers to rise... 

But no. The barriers remain down as the 21:25 SKM service to Piaseczno approaches Nowa Iwiczna station from the north. Maybe once this train has passed, the barriers will rise... Again, no. This time, the barriers remain down for the 21:28 SKM service towards Warsaw. I notice a family – mum carrying small child, dad with baby in pram and grandmother, who had been trapped for several minutes between the main barrier and short barrier closing off the northbound platform. Because of this, they missed that first train to town. They can now hear the SKM train approaching and are determined not to miss another. So dad removes baby from pram, lowers it under the barrier, scrambling under himself, reassembling the pram, putting in baby, taking the second child from his wife, then helping her and the grandmother under the barrier. They have lost their dignity but caught their train. 

Will the barriers go up now? No they won't because the 21:33 Koleje Mazowieckie train to Góra Kalwaria is now due (turns out that my train to Chynów is not until 22:09). I watched the Góra Kalwaria service come and sadly saw it go. And then – finally, after thirteen minutes, the barriers go up. The sound of revving engines on either side! Exhaust fumes! A crowd of waiting pedestrians to breathe them all it. Charge! 

********

Yesterday, same place, nearly eight pm. Ul. Krasickiego, Nowa Iwiczna. As I approach the station, the bells start clanging, the lights start flashing – the barriers start descending. Does this presage the impending arrival of a southbound train? I don't fancy waiting an hour for the next one. to Chynów Or is it a northbound train? Or a long goods train coming slowly from either direction? Whatever it is, there's still time... I kick down into a sudden sprint for the barrier.

TWANG! FUUUUUCK! MY FUCKING LEG! 

The calf muscle in my right leg has just torn. A flash of pain, that feeling of having had a baseball bat smacking forcefully into my right leg from behind. I limp on towards the barrier, drop to my knees to get under it. I look both ways. NO SIGHT OF ANY FUCKING TRAIN. Across the three railway tracks I continue, in agony, and drop down again to crawl under the barrier on the other side. Holding onto the handrails, I haul myself up to the platform... nothing approaching from the north. So it was all in vain. A minute that seemed to last an hour but was only a minute, passed. A light from around the corner, and a Warsaw-bound SKM train hoves into view. Mine is due in 13 minutes, although it's one of those days when the service is screwed up and anything can happen. 

I hobble down to the shelter and take a seat and start furiously massaging my right calf. In the distance, I can see the lights of my train. The barriers start descending, accompanied by the clanging of bells and the flashing of lights. Four minutes later, I'm on the train, heading south. I take a seat, continuing to massage my leg. It is very painful when I touch it. Soon I'm back in Chynów. The kilometre home takes me the best part of half an hour, dragging my right leg behind me.

Once inside, a soluble aspirin and an early night. When lying down, it's comfortable, but every now and then, a spasm of pain jolts through my left leg; falling asleep takes a long time. But once asleep, it's OK; I wake once for a wee at 03:00, then sleep through to just before eight. All told, a good night's sleep for to circumstances.

This morning, while resting, the leg is still making me aware of itself (it just feels like it's really tired, after a hard workout), but as soon as I stand up and try to move, it hurts. The only way I can locomote is to straighten my right leg at a 45-degree angle, foot on the floor, and slide it along with my left leg pushing, then jumping forward. Push, slide, jump. Push, slide, jump.

I remind myself of the last time this happened (this is the great thing about having a blog!) Back in October 2013. Friday 25th. Seemed to have been slightly worse than this time; the key question is – how long will it take me to fully recover? Back then, 11 years ago, my blog indicates it took me nine days before I was out and about. Well, there's a target there, for mind over matter. And a lesson - don't break into sprints at the age of 67!

Having had that experience, and writing it down, proves useful for learning. As we get older – every one of us – we have to learn to manage our biologies. And my 17 year-long blogging (and 11 year-long spreadsheet) is a useful tool for to that end.

This time three years ago year:
The ego and evil

This time five years ago:
Warsaw's Christmas lights 2019-20

This time six years ago:
Pawlikowski's Cold War

This time nine years ago:
"Extreme weather events are now a feature of the British climate"

This time 11 years ago:
Cheaper public transport for Varsovians

This time 12 years ago:
Swans on ice

This time 13 years ago:
Cars 

This time 14 years ago:
What's the English for kombinować?

This time 15 years ago:
The demographics of jazz

This time 17 years ago:
A day in Poznań

Big new railway project for southern Warsaw

This project has been talked about for many years, but finally plans have been announced and public consultations are under way. 

I'm referring to the idea of turning the Siekierki coal-train line into a proper, electrified, suburban commuter railway, all the way to Konstancin-Jeziorna. [I wrote about this back in 2014!] Now, this project also involves doubling up track from Warsaw all the way down to Czachowek Południowy, to increase throughput capacity for suburban traffic. This therefore means four tracks all the way to Czachówek, meaning that Zalesie Górne, Piaseczno, Nowa Iwiczna and all suburban stations from W-wa Jeziorki northwards will need new platforms. Eight brand-new stations are proposed, with a further two in reserve.

This is how the project, as currently proposed, will look... [Full documentation in Polish –  Dobudowa torów aglomeracyjnych na odcinku Warszawa Al. Jerozolimskie – Piaseczno wraz z połączeniem do Konstancina-Jeziornej is here.] Below: a schematic representation of the proposed project.

At the Warsaw end, a new connection to the Radom line will be built from W-wa Włochy, allowing trains approaching Warsaw from the west to swing south directly without having to change direction at W-wa Zachodnia.

This means that W-wa Aleje Jerozolimskie will get two new platforms with three new platform edges. A new station, W-wa Instalatorów, will be built between W-wa Aleje Jerozolimskie and W-wa Rakowiec stations. Extra (island) platforms will also be have to be built at W-wa Rakowiec and W-wa Żwirki i Wigury stations. At W-wa Służewiec station, the current island platform will be removed and replaced by two new island platforms, and (at last!) a new passage under the tracks will be built allowing access to the station from the south (at the moment you either have to walk a 700m detour or cross the track illegally and jump up onto the platform). Several new footbridges are also planned along this stretch, also something to be praised.

W-wa Okęcie, rebuilt in 2016-17, will be demolished yet again and moved further north of its current location, in the form of a pair of island platforms, linked by an underground passage. Something else that's sorely needed is a new station, W-wa Poleczki, between W-wa Okęcie and W-wa Dawidy. This will be built on the north side of the viaduct carrying ulica Poleczki over the tracks and the S79 expressway, and will be hugely useful to folk working in the numerous offices and warehouses that have sprung up around here in recent years.

Another brand-new station that's being proposed is W-wa Krasnowola, on ul. Zatorze, with one island platform; this will be located north of the S79/S2/S7 expressway junction. At present, this will just be a reserve, with a planned option for building it at an unspecified later date. Four new railway viaducts will be needed to cross over the S2 just south of this location.

W-wa Dawidy and W-wa Jeziorki stations, which as long-term readers of this blog will remember were once served by island platforms, will once again become island platforms, straddled this time by not one but two tracks on either side. Ulica Baletowa will go under the railway line; a new viaduct will be built some 400m to the south connected by a new road parallel to ul. Kórnicka and joining the S7's eastern service road on the other side.

A similar story at Nowa Iwiczna, which also reverts to an island platform, and the good news for local residents is that a viaduct is in the plans for ul. Krasickiego, replacing the infamous level crossing there.

It is south of Nowa Iwiczna that the coal-train line swing off towards Piaseczno and Konstancin. This will run double-tracked (and electrified) all the way to a final stop, Konstancin-Jeziorna-Mirkowska. En route, trains will stop at the following new stations: Piaseczno Mleczarska, Piaseczno Energetyczna (adjacent to ul. Puławska - brilliant solution!), Piaseczno Julianowska (serving Julianów), Piaseczno Śniadeckich (the eastern end of Julianów) with a reserve stop at Konstancin-Jeziorna Głowackiego (for the south-west corner of the Las Kabacki forest), past the coal-train sidings, then on to Konstancin-Jeziorna, serving the town centre (on ul. Warszawska), over a new junction where the new passenger line bids farewell to the coal train, which heads off north to Siekierki power station, and finally on to the end of the line, at Konstancin-Jeziorna-Mirkowska. 

So that's the new passenger line to Konstancin. Meanwhile, on the Warsaw-Radom line, before it gets to Piaseczno station, there will be another station, Piaseczno Północ, south of ul. Słoneczna, along the route of the new DW721 bis (that phantom road from the stump-end of the new S7's Węzeł Lesznowola that will one day run to Piaseczno. This was once mooted as Stara Iwiczna station, but the DW721 bis made that plan obsolete.

At Piaseczno, a station newly rebuilt and now serving as the end of the SKM lines S4 and S40, the current platforms will be dismantled and replaced with two new island platforms serving the four tracks, and a new footbridge built at the station's southern side.

The level crossing in Żabieniec will be replaced with a viaduct. At Zalesie Górne, the current platforms will be replaced with a pair of island platforms, and the level crossing on ul. Pionierów will be replaced by a viaduct.

The same will happen at Ustanówek and Czachówek Górny, with island platforms replacing the newly built platforms that now lie on either side of the tracks. The Czachówek diamond will remain as is, with just single tracks connecting west to north, north to east, east to south and south to west spurs.

At Czachówek Południowy station, which already has two island platforms serving four tracks, the existing platforms will be extended to the south. The existing level crossing will be replaced by a viaduct 200 metres further south. And here, the four tracks will merge into the two that will carry trains local and express on to Radom via Chynów, Warka and Dobieszyn as they do today.

The upshot of all this track-doubling is that once done, during the rush hours, the line will be able to accommodate one local train every five minutes (!) and one InterCity train every 15 minutes. Excellent!

Public consultations are taking place up and down the line until early June. The full timetable of dates and venues here. (My nearest one will be in Uwieliny, near Zalesie Górne, on 29 May). My fear is an outcrop of BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything), the radical wing of the NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard). I can see this around the project to link the Radom line from Warka to Grójec. Of the 12 variants put up for discussion, all 12 have been shouted down the local communities, including here in Chynów. 

Even if the whole Konstancin rail project goes ahead, my experience (S79, S2, S7, Warsaw-Radom modernisation, all covered on this blog) suggests that it might be 2033 at the earliest before we actually see this completed. The tender for the detailed design is not to be announced until the second half of 2025. From then, another five years could pass before construction work begins in earnest, so provided there are no delays, 2033 is possible.

This time last year:
Prime spring, Jakubowizna

This time seven years ago:
Classic car show, Nadarzyn

This time eight years ago:

Classic vehicles at London's VE-Day 70 celebrations

This time ten years ago:
Malodorous passengers on Warsaw's public transport

This time 12 years ago:
Inside Filtry - Warsaw's waterworks (Museum Night 2011)

This time 13 years ago:
Warsaw's Museum Night 2010

This time 14 years ago:
On Transcendence

Rail travel update - Radom line

I interrupt my series of Lenten posts to cover the big railway news story of today - major changes on the Radom line, affecting Jeziorki and Jakubowizna and all points south.

There is good news and there is bad news.

First the good news. The SKM now runs to Piaseczno, which means doubling the number of trains serving the line from Piaseczno, Nowa Iwiczna, W-wa Jeziorki, W-wa Dawidy and W-wa Okęcie. At peak times, these stations now have six trains an hour running into town. From W-wa Służewiec, the trains from the airport join the line, so stations between there are W-wa Aleje Jerozolimskie now have eight trains an hour to town at peak times. The two new SKM services (operated by the City of Warsaw, analogous to the London Overground lines) are the S4 that goes all the way north to Wieliszew past Legionowo, and the S40 that terminates in town.

Now the bad news. None of these trains go to W-wa Śródmieście, the station serving central Warsaw. Or indeed to any of the other stations along the Linia średnicowa - the transversal line linking Warsaw West with Warsaw East. Not only the new SKM trains, but this also affects all the trains from Radom. And that means Chynów too.

Half of the trains coming in to Warsaw along the Radom line now terminate at the newly refurbished and reopened W-wa Główna station, which lies 2km west of W-wa Śródmieście, a 25-minute walk. Of course, there are buses and trams connecting the two as well.

The other half of trains from the Radom line end up at W-wa Gdańska, 3.5km north of  W-wa Śródmieście. There is, however, "convenient change to Metro M1"; from W-wa Gdańska it's three stops on the Metro to Centrum, next door to W-wa Śródmieście. An alternative for me to get to my office is to change at W-wa Młynów, walk to Metro Młynów on the M2 line and take that to Świętokrzyska (four stops).

W-wa Gdańska lies on the northern Warsaw loop line, and like W-wa Główna, it has been recently refurbished. Now, the western end of this loop line manages to miss Warsaw West station, passing at the bizarrely twice-renamed W-wa Zachodnia Peron 9 - a name which implies that it's an integral part of Warsaw West, but it isn't. It is merely a rebranding of the old W-wa Wola station - first as W-wa Zachodnia Peron 8, and now Peron 9, reflecting the fact that Warsaw West has sprouted an eighth platform during its ongoing modernisation. 

The problem with Peron 9 is that with the current pedestrian diversions in force, it's nearly 1.5km on foot from Warsaw West Platform 1. Down one tunnel, along a long road, round the corner, across (no zebra crossing) a busy road, along this to the entrance to the ramp up to Platforms 8, 7, 6 and 5, over the pedestrian viaduct, down some steps to Platform 3, down into another tunnel and up some steps. Not to be attempted with heavy baggage or on a wheelchair. An absolute nightmare, but to give PKP PLK its due, this nightmare has been well communicated to passengers - avoid changing trains here!

You can still get to W-wa Śródmieście if you're coming up from the Radom line; if your train is terminating at W-wa Główna, change at (the main!) Warsaw West for a service that will take you to the city centre; if you're on a train to W-wa Gdańska, change at W-wa Aleje Jerozolimskie for either a train to Warsaw West and change there for W-wa Śródmieście, or take one of the airport trains and alight at Warsaw Central and walk.

As you can see, it's bloody complicated, a nuisance, and tricky to work out especially when trying to get home late of an evening after a whole bottle of wine.

This state of affairs is likely to drag on for four years, until the major modernisation of the transversal line is completed; it will entail closing the existing W-wa Powiśle (shame!) and re-siting the station further west, underground in the tunnel, nearer Rondo de Gaulle'a. All good by 2028, but until then, fun and games.

This time last year:
Angels, daemons and aliens

This time two years ago:
Reconciling science and spirituality

This time three years ago:
The metaphysical journey as I see it

This time six years ago:
Spirit of Age, spirit of Place

This time seven years ago:
The crux of the matter

This time nine years ago:
10,000 steps is a lot for one day

This time ten years ago:
Bary mleczne - Warsaw's cheap eateries

This time 12 years ago:
Old Town, another prospect

This time 13 years ago:
W-wa Śródmieście - commuters' staging post

This time 14 years ago:
Filthy ul. Poloneza

This time 15 years ago:
A sight that heralds the coming of spring

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

The spreading city - a vicious circle

I've not been to Nowa Iwiczna for several months; most of my rambles south of Jeziorki have been around the S7 extension roadworks west of the railway line. From the border of Warsaw, south of W-wa Jeziorki station, I take the footpath following the railway to its east (below) - this was once the path of the siding into the runs parallel to the rampa na kruszywa (aggregate transshipment ramp). 

Below: crossing the border (ulica Graniczna) between Mysiadło and Nowa Iwiczna, I notice that the path has widened and hardened for vehicular access. Soon I see why - a development of ten homes, two terraces of five houses on ul. Torowa (lit. 'track street'). Any space that a developer can squeeze in more housing - even if it's right by the railway line (you can make out the electricity gantries beyond the trees to the left). The row of houses to the left are less than 50m from the coal train line - which residents of Osiedle Etap by W-wa Jeziorki station complain bitterly above despite being twice as far away.

Below: the same thing is happening around the corner on newly-built ul. Turystyczna (lit. 'touristic street'), also in Nowa Iwiczna. Here, the houses are less than 30m away from the line, although there are no frequent passenger trains using the line here - only the long, heavy and loud coal trains. Photo taken from the pedestrian-only level crossing (bicycles can cross too - but you'd be hard pressed to get a motorbike past the barriers).

From this development to Nowa Iwiczna station is an eight-minute walk via that crossing. But to drive to the station is a journey of at least 2.6km, entailing two level crossings. I suspect walking makes sense to all but the laziest polluter-commuter. An alternative to taking the train is driving to town, along ul. Puławska, notorious for its traffic jams. Below: the section of ul. Puławska from ul. Energetyczna to ul. Okulickiego in Piaseczno is being widened to three lanes each way; a bottleneck bunging up the road. I can only hope that the long-(like ten years or more) delayed bus lanes for Puławska will finally appear. No excuse - especially now that the S2 tunnel has opened.

We know how all road-widening ends; "It's so much easier to drive to town!" More people do so, leading quickly to more congestion and calls for further road-widening. Meanwhile, as seen in the photos above, more and more development, more housing, more people, are moving out into Warsaw's suburbs. I can only hope that the growth of working from home will reduce numbers of people needing to make the daily trip to town, and once the pandemic has eased people will feel more comfortable using public transport and ditch the car.

For my Polish readers, this carbon-footprint calculator, courtesy of BNP Paribas, is worth looking at, in case you feel you're doing your bit to save the climate. It's sobering.

[Postscript, 9 January 2022: at the northern end of ul. Główna, Bobrowiec, less than 5km from Nowa Iwiczna, I see another development arising out of the fields. Sprayed on the chipboard surrounding the building site are the words: Jebać szeregowce - "Fuck terraced houses".]

[Postscript, 12 January 2022: fellow Warsaw blogger Student SGH sent me this wonderful photo from Nowa Iwiczna - the promise clashes with the reality. On a new house, a large banner proclaiming 'I wouldn't buy this house a second time'. Caveat emptor.

This time last year:
New sewers, new estate

This time two years ago:

The ultra-rich - deserving, or not

This time six years ago:
Globalisation and its part in PiS's return to power

This time seven years ago:
UK overtakes France as the world's fifth-largest economy

This time 11 years ago:
Wetlands winter meltdown

This time 12 years ago:
Winter's walk to work

This time 13 years ago:
Winter drivetime, Jeziorki North

S7 extension section 'A' end-to-end

Thanks to Paul W and Moni!

The Christmas break on the construction site of the S7 gives the curious a good opportunity to check out the local stretch of this major infrastructure project. A chance to walk odcinek A ('stretch' or 'section A') from one end to another, and in particular to the southern end, which I've never yet seen.

Both sections have been troubled by contractual issues. Odcinek A was originally meant to have been built by Rubau; the contactor fell foul of terms and conditions and the contract was annulled before any work has started; Polaqua went on to win the new tender (more than double the price of Rubau's bid). Now 22 months after it began work on the project, Polaqua has displayed a staggeringly fast pace. 

Odcinek B has had a similar history, but here the initial contractor, IDS-Bud had actually made a start on the earthworks before being thrown off the contract for being too slow. Another firm, PTU Intercor, was finally selected earlier this year and is now getting on with it at a better pace, according to Skyscraper City's S7-extension watchers. [A quick aside - the first post about the S7 extension dates back to 2005; based on a press report claiming that the expressway between Warsaw and Grójec would be opened in 2008. One and half decades of over-optimism!]

Below: here's the southern end, where the two contracts meet. This point is about 150m south of ulica Słoneczna, the DW721 between Piaseczno and Magdalenka, In the foreground, odcinek A; concrete on the ground, most of the ancillary infrastructure (crash barriers, lighting, service roads) almost ready. Beyond the barriers begins odcinek B. It's Christmas Eve, heavy wet snow is falling, the temperature is just above 0C, but the snow is settling.

Below: from one of the detailed diagrams of the S7 extension (the whole of odcinek A is available for download here). Oriented with the south at the top, it shows the boundary between odcinek A and B, and ul. Słoneczna (DW721) passes underneath.

Below: underneath the bridge taking ul. Raszyńska over the S7, linking Nowa Wola to the west with Zgorzała to the east. No street lighting for the local traffic, but at least there's a pavement.

Below: looking north towards the new bridge carrying ul. Raszyńska over the S7. On the horizon, the cranes on the building sites of Zamienie, where new blocks of flats are continuing to appear amid the fields.

Below: ul. Krasickiego, running east-west from Nowa Iwiczna to Nowa Wola, passes through a tunnel under the S7. Looking west toward Nowa Wola.

Below: Paul's drone shots of the bridge on Christmas Day (much finer weather, -6C and clear skies), looking north.

Drones are just the thing for following the development of road-building projects!

Below: looking east towards Piaseczno - the S7 is crossed by a new viaduct carrying four lanes of road from nowhere to nowhere. This will, one day, be the DW (droga wojewódźka) 721 bis, relieving the heavy single-carriageway ul. Słoneczna. Trouble is, the residents of Konstancin further east aren't happy with the concept of a new road. Still, building infrastructure now in advance of projects that may not happen for another 15 years is not entirely new around here. In the middle distance, ul. Postępu (lit. 'Progress Street') runs north-south from Zgorzała towards Bobrowiec.

Meanwhile, Christmas Day saw Moni and me heading the other way along the S7 extension, to where it will meet the S79 (below), taking the expressway into central Warsaw. No progress since I last came here a few weeks ago.

Below: traditional farm building, Dawidy Zwykłe. Behind the house, acoustic screens and the S7. To the right, a logistics centre. Immediately behind me - the railway line. I hear the low rumble of an approaching coal train, and the distant 'ding-ding-ding' of the level crossing barriers as they descend...

Below: the fully laden coal train on its way to Siekierki power station.

The bridge over the S7 at Zamienie would be a good place for photographing planes on coming in to Warszawa Okęcie airport if there were a pavement along the side. But there isn't. Still - no traffic, no construction work, so on Christmas Day a chance for a snap. Below: LOT Polish Airlines Embraer ERJ 175 (Warmia i Mazury livery) on final approach.

New for 2021 in the most immediate neighbourhood - the view from our back garden looking towards ul. Trombity, where the old farmhouse and outbuildings have been pulled down to make way for a pair of modern bungalows.

This time two years ago:
Eighty-five chains to Hazelwood Station

This time three years ago:
Christmas round-up

This time five years ago:
Derbyshire at Christmas

This time six years ago:
Across the High Peaks

This time seven years ago:
Derbyshire's rolling landscapes

This time eight years ago:
Our Progress Around the Sceptr'd Isle 

This time nine years ago:
Out and about in Duffield

and...
Christmas Break

This time ten years ago:
Boxing Day walk in Derbyshire

This time 11 years ago 

Derbyshire in the snow

This time 13 years ago:

Derbyshire in the sunshine

This time 14 years ago:

Derbyshire in the drizzle

Zamienie and Nowa Wola - changing fast

I learned early on that it makes little sense googling 'Zamienie' because the search engine ignores Polish diacritic marks and capital letters. As such, Google mistakes this Warsaw exurb with the word 'zamienię', which means 'I will exchange' or 'I will swap'. Or at least it used to. Indeed the first search result that appears on Google offers me an XBox 1S in exchange for an XBox 360. But the search engine has becoming cleverer in the intervening 20 years since I first tried looking for Zamienie online. The next two results are both links to the Wikipedia pages in English and Polish respectively for "Zamienie [zaˈmjɛɲɛ], a village in the administrative district of Gmina Lesznowola, within Piaseczno County, Masovian Voivodship, in east-central Poland." And only then do we get back to the small ads: "Swap BMW E36 for a motorbike."

While local residents wait for the new footbridge to connect Zamienie to Jeziorki and thus to Warsaw, I take a stroll to see the latest development, heading down towards Nowa Wola, before returning via Nowa Iwiczna and Mysiadło to Jeziorki.

Below: emblem of the old Zamienie, the remains of what was once a dwór - a landed estate with outbuildings in parkland; nationalised after WW2, turned into a vaccine plant, sold in the early years of this century, now partially abandoned, on its fringes new housing developments are rapidly springing up.

Highways running through communities split them apart; mentally, Zamienie will become 'across the S7' in the mind-maps of Jeziorki residents, more remote. Below: completion of the S7 is but one winter away. Local motor traffic will soon be directed across the viaduct in the distance, while pedestrians will have no alternative but to use the footbridge which is being built immediately behind this viewpoint.

And in Zamienie, just outside Warsaw's borders - new blocks of flats, below. I wonder what the attraction is. Surely it's better to live in a flat in Warsaw proper, in a suburb like Ursynów or Gocław, well connected to the city centre by public transport, and forego car ownership?

I walk through Zamienie, crossing ulica Raszyńska to reach Nowa Wola, a village that's turning into an full-blown exurb as new housing developments take over from fields. At least the infrastructure is catching up. Ul. Płonowa (lit. 'crop street', below) is no longer full of crops, but it is now asphalted from end to end. And it is busy, being the only way in or out of this development of new estates (with a further three under construction). But where are the shops?

If there's a new Nowa Wola, there's also the old one, strung out in typical Polish-village fashion along one road (ul. Krasickiego), which runs into Piaseczno via Nowa Iwiczna. Traditional rural housing.

Marian shrines along ul. Krasickiego speak of local devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The one to the left is on the corner of ul. Płonowa, the one on the right is on the corner of ul. Postępu.

Nowa Wola has a fair-sized pond, an attractive water feature when all around is flat fields. Across the water looking east is the local voluntary fire service (OSP) station.

Below: looking north across the pond towards ul. Krasickiego. A nicely maintained park with exercise equipment and swings. I fear this pocket of rural quiet will soon be subsumed to the roll-out of exurbia as further estates spring up in nearby fields. And the roar of the S7 extension, muffled and hidden by acoustic screens, will remind residents that they have been cut off from Nowa Iwiczna to the east.

Here it is - the march of progress. Four-story townhouses emerging from fields once full of cabbage, carrot or potato. High-tension power lines strung out across the sky. Before too long, this will all be housing. But will there be the local amenities - the shops, cafes, restaurants? Public transport?

Back in Jeziorki, the fields between Mysiadło and ul. Karczunkowska. I fear these too will be filled with new homes before too very long. It is a sobering thought that the same percentage of Poles (68%) live in Poland's towns and cities as British people lived in British towns and cities 150 years ago, according to the census of 1871, when 32% of the population was still rural - as in Poland today. There's still much urbanisation ahead for Poland - and I fear that this is where it will be happening.

16,000 paces (12.8km) walked today - I made the most of the weather. Rubbish yesterday, rubbish tomorrow.

This time two years ago:
My father's last (written) words

This time four years ago:
Kolej Grójecka

This time six years ago:
PIS, thinking wishfully about the village

This time eight years ago:
An unseasonably warm autumn in Warsaw

This time nine years ago:
Shedding light on an unused road

This time ten years ago:
S2-S79 Elka from the air 

This time 11 years ago:
Fish and chips in Warsaw

This time 12 years ago:
Spirit of place - anomalous familiarity moments 

Sunny holiday local check-up

 Ah! The sun is out and I want some... Time for a walk to benefit from autumnal rays, and while conditions allow, to take a peek at how the S7 extension is getting on south of Zamienie. I see, looking at past years (bottom, marked with asterisks), that the national holiday celebrating Poland's regained independence is a good opportunity for photographing progress of local road-building.

Folk were out in force cycling, jogging and walking hither and yon all over the building site, with their children and their dogs - and work was still going on! Not at the usual frenetic pace, but from time to time a dumper truck would roar past. Despite the public holiday, work was very much in progress today.

Below: the new footbridge over the S7 extension will be the only pedestrian link between Zamienie and Dawidy Bankowe to the west, and Zgorzała and Jeziorki to the east. It's taking an inordinately long time compared to the pace of work elsewhere. The new road bridge, some 500m further north (just beyond the warehouse), takes four lanes of motor traffic but has no pavement. Bastards. The top end of the S7 can only be crossed on foot in three places: the tunnel along ul. Baletowa nearly two kilometres away to the north, this viaduct; and then the next one, a kilometre and half to the south, for cars and pedestrians. Entirely insufficient. Communities will end up being split in half.

Below: my first view from that new viaduct which links the two sides of Nowa Wola. Looking south towards Lesznowola

Below: looking north from the same viaduct, note the marked sweep of the S7 as it weaves between Zgorzała (to the right) and Zamienie (to the left on the horizon). Note the service roads on either side of the expressway, and the drainage ditches between the services road and the S7 itself.

Below: Ursynów rises on the horizon on this telephoto shot that shows both the footbridge and the distant cars-only viaduct crossing the S7. Note the posts for the acoustic screens that will muffle the worst of the noise from the residents of Zgorzała.

Below: steps link the service roads on both sides of the S7 to the viaduct carrying the local road. Turf has been laid, rather than waiting for grass seeds to germinate.

Below: a shot taken on Monday evening, looking north towards Warsaw's skyline, from where the slip-road from węzeł (junction) Zamienie joins the northbound carriageway. Note the 'Turdis' to the left (the flashing light on the roof was from a truck passing in the background).

I leave the S7 and head back to Jeziorki via the fields between Nowa Wola and Zgorzała, before crossing the railway line. This area is one huge expanse of housing developments, being built up at tremendous speed. I've just looked at Google Earth imagery from February this year - already out of date.

Below: I don't wanna house that looks like that! End-terrace on the border of Zgorzała and Nowa Wola. Architecturally dismal. People have now moved in. A car or two with every house. Traffic will get worse.

Below: this wasn't here last time I passed by... from behind a field of maize appears yet another new development; the land between Zgorzała, Mysiadło, Nowa Iwiczna and Nowa Wola is rapidly filling up with houses and flats. Despite this frenzy of house-building (around 15 estates in total), access roads remain limited to two muddy tracks (ul. Gogolińska south of Warsaw's border, and ul. Przepiórki), and two asphalted roads to the south (ul. Kielecka and ul. Dzikiej Róży).

Below: looking east along Rów Jeziorki ('Jeziorki Ditch'), the line of silver birches demarcating the southern boundary of Warsaw. To the right, beyond the rushes, a potato field. Beyond that - newly built rows of terraced houses.

Below: looking south along ul. Gogolińska, one of just four access roads to the sprawl of development mentioned above. No asphalt - must be a river mud after a week's rain. Potholes merely filled with gravel. Another new building is appearing - fortunately, this is designated for shops and restaurants - sorely needed by the locals.

Below: "Grass triumphs, and I must say, I'm rather glad." The last line of John Betjeman's Metro-land, expressing his satisfaction that the Metropolitan Railway's plans to extend suburbia all the way out to rural Buckinghamshire failed. This is where the PiS government's flagship social-housing project, announced in October 2017, was to have been built, filling this field with flats for 8,000 people. Word was in May that it would not happen; indeed, on the Mieszkanie Plus website, there's no mention of a project for Jeziorki. All mentions of it have been deleted.

This time last year:
Zamienie is changing*

This time three years ago:
Thoughts on the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence

This time four years ago:
Globalisation in retreat

This time eight years ago:
Leeds, a city made uglier by crooked developers

This time nine years ago:
Węzeł Lotnisko (now Węzeł W-wa Południe) - works continue*

This time 14 years ago:
Its Independence Day

The Sun and Snow

Sunshine reflecting off the snow - instant mood elevator. Thankfully, no work that cannot be delayed until after sunset, so off I go for a long stroll to catch those life-enhancing rays.

Below: Pozytywki pond. scenes unknown to me in my childhood - clear blue sky, snow on the ground. England's maritime climate very rarely offers such sights. I'm minded of skiing holidays in the French Alps - but the atmosphere up there at 2,000m above sea level was rather more lunar - council estates on the moon. Days like this bring back that sublime feeling - I know this but know not where from. The snow on the surface of the pond is quickly turning to slush as the sun beats down...

Below: further along ulica Pozytywki, a reminder that there's still plenty of agriculture going on within Warsaw's boundaries. Apropos of skiing holidays, I do miss the smell of French cigarettes hanging in the crisp Alpine air, though I'm not a smoker.

Below: Warsaw's southern boundary, defined by this drainage ditch. Warsaw to the right, Mysiadło to the left. In the distance, the Warsaw-Radom railway line. Warm enough to take off my hat and gloves.

From here a few paces forward, then turn 90 degrees right. Across the corduroy field, below, ul. Karczunkowska - and what's that on the horizon? Why, it's the top of Varso tower. The rest - and most of Warsaw's skyline - has been swallowed up by the world-beating smog. Polish cities vie with India's metropolises in global smog alerts these past days. Combination of coal-powered energy generation, lazy drivers driving to the office, and households burning whatever crap comes to hand.

But turn away from town for cleaner air. Looking south, walking into the sun.

Below: well down along the track to Nowa Iwiczna, looking back towards town this time.

I cross the track just north of Nowa Iwiczna and cross into Nowa Wola, where new estates are springing up like proverbial mushrooms after rain. Here's one I haven't seen before, off ul. Postępu just south of Zgorzała.

Along ul. Postępu, Osiedle Kolorowe (lit. 'Colourful Estate'). I'm in two minds about this garish paint scheme, but with a blue sky and strong sunshine, this looks like a tourist poster for a Norwegian fishing village. So I'm OK with this today!

This time last year:

Farewell to my father's car

This time three years ago
Notes from the Arena of the Unwell

[Interesting from the perspective of Covid-19]

This time four years ago:
The magic of a dawn flight

This time five years ago:
Warsaw as a voivodship

This time seven years ago:
Around town in the snow

This time nine years ago:
Reference books are dead

This time ten years ago:
A winter walk to work, and wet socks