S2 opens, unblocking east-west transit through Warsaw

I finally got round to it today - a very long (19,000 paces!) stroll from home to the western portal of the S2 tunnel, which was opened on Monday 20 December. 

Story so far - the A2 motorway/S2 expressway, which form the Polish part of European Route E30 (Cork to Omsk), got as far as Warsaw in 2012 (in time for that year's European football championships). Since then, transcontinental traffic heading east would get as far as this junction with ulica Puławska (below), and would then solidify into one huge constipated jam made up of local, regional, national and international traffic on Dolina Służewiecka. Now, over 11 years after the A2/S2 reached Warsaw, the route finally gets to cut through to the other side, via a 2.3km-long tunnel diving under the southern suburb of Ursynów. [The sign above the slip-road states that traffic over 16 tonnes is prohibited from using the S2 between 7-10am and 4-8pm. Much transit traffic will continue to use the DK50, but anyone who can will rather use the S2 - it's  27km shorter.]

For about two and half kilometres, the S2 runs parallel to a single-track railway line, the umbilical cord linking Warsaw's Metro system with the outside world. Rarely used these days (new Metro rolling stock now gets delivered by road!), the rails themselves are lightly coated with rust, suggesting the infrequent passage of a maintenance draisine. Below: looking west towards ul. Puławska, the slip-road joins the S2 to the right. The acoustic screens are effective - the roar of Puławska way behind me is louder than the traffic on the other side of the screen.

Below: looking towards the western portal of the tunnel. It dives down beneath the Metro, building the tunnel with minimal disruption to the Metro service was quite a feat of engineering! The sign says that average speed is being measured; cameras automatically capture each vehicle as it drives in and drives out of the tunnel and work out its average speed. You have been warned. 

Below: going underground. Above the tunnel, there has been much structural change to the fabric, the look-and-feel of Ursynów. I found it difficult to get my bearings along ul. Płaskowickiej, a street which I once knew intimately from morning runs to my children's primary school. 

I chose to return through the Las Kabacki forest. The Metro's rail link at this point, at twilight, takes on a very specific, eerie air. It is as if I have entered Tarkovsky's зона from Stalker by night...

Some subtle Photoshoppery going on here... That glow in the distance is from the Metro maintenance depot, but it feels like could be an atomic weapons manufacturing facility in the Urals...

On the way home I take the long way around to take a stroll over the ice on the pond on ul Pozytywki before it melts. The sign prohibits angling and littering, but there's plenty of evidence of ice-skating going on. Absolutely rock-solid ice - and you can see the high level of water in the pond this year. I like the horizon on this photo, the wires, lights and foggy sky.

Below: looking at ul. Pozytywki from the middle of the pond; a strong 1950s USA vibe. "Approaching the country club in midwinter."

I'd like to share two particularly atmospheric digital works from my brother; the one below is based on my recent photo of the new roundabout by the S7 extension viaduct - Cold fronts, Atlantic depressions and winter storms.

Below: the National Air Traffic Control radar installation, Claxby, Lincolnshire.

This time last year:
The first year of Covid-19

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

This time three years ago:
The Day the World Didn't End
[The world's gone more shit-shaped than I dared predict]

This time six years ago:
Hybrid driving - the verdict

This time eight years ago:
Pitshanger Lane in the sun

This time 12 years ago:
Miserable, grey, wet London

This time 12 years ago:
Parrots in Ealing

This time 13 years ago:
Heathrow to Okęcie

New sewers, new estate

Closed off for four months, ulica Pozytywki is open again (below). Under the newly-relaid paving lie new laid sewer pipes, connecting houses on the street (existing and new) to the sewer main running along ul. Karczunkowska. Some road closures in Poland are in name only - this one was serious. A hole in the ground, some two to three metres deep, stretched from the wall on the left to the fence on the right, with no pedestrian access. This meant my regular walk to Lidl has had to be along the main roads rather than down the quiet ul. Pozytywki and ul. Cymbalistów; noisier, more dangerous and an additional 400m or so along which to carry the shopping home.

Looking back from the junction of ul. Pozytywki and ul. Cymbalistów, the pond to the left. The construction crew that has been on-site since the summer is packing up. Final details are being sorted.

Houses and farms south of ul. Karczunkowska are now connected to the town drains. As is the new estate, which has appeared on the quadrangle of land between Pozytywki, Cymbalistów, Katarynki (to the south) and Czarkowskiego (to the east). 

From my observations, I'd guess that the majority of the builders on this project are from Ukraine, judging from the electro-folk pumping out of loudspeakers on the site.

A dense development ("Each house with 340m² of garden!" shouts the billboard advertising it) of  neo-moderne townhouses; I think it will sell. This is still Warsaw, so it has the cachet of actually being in the capital rather than some peripheral village with no infrastructure. The bus stops of ul. Puławska are within easy walking distance, as is the local Lidl and Rossmann. For young families wanting to escape a block of flats, this should be ideal - a trend the pandemic is likely to reinforce. But just look at the mud!

Mud is a feature of edge-of-town Warsaw. Below: this is ul. Dumki - look it up on any map of the city. The authorities ought to either ban all motorised traffic (which churns it up) or get the street asphalted. But this is disgraceful. Note the white-green-white markers on tree and post, denoting a szlak turystyczny - tourist trail. Good luck with that!

UPDATE 16 January: It had to happen, didn't it... the same puddle as seen above, froze over a week later and got covered in snow; it lay in wait for a car to come this way - and it did. The driver abandoned it to seek help. Abandoned it in the middle of a Warsaw street, the one marked on your Google Maps app as leading from ul. Kórnicka to ul. Trombity.

Evening falls, and a train rushes south heading for Piaseczno. At least the rail infrastructure is sound.

Below: bonus photo from the recently-released orthophotographic map of Warsaw - this is the shadow of our house on ul. Trombity and the neighbours' house plus our gardens thrown onto the newly ploughed corduroy fields. Taken in April, before the trees came into leaf. 

This time last year:

The ultra-rich - deserving, or not

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

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

This time ten years ago:
Wetlands winter meltdown

This time 11 years ago:
Winter's walk to work

This time 12 years ago:
Winter drivetime, Jeziorki North

Jeziorki in May

The second half of May is loveliest time of year. The greenery is at its most verdant, many flowers are in bloom. It's not too hot - it's been a cool May so far, and the rain has brought welcome relief after a bone-dry and snow-free winter. Far more is needed, however - it's painful to watch waterfowl wading in water they should be diving in. Photos from the manor, then. No particular order...

Below: ulica Żmijewska. Yes, a Warsaw street - find it in any atlas*. It heads west from ul. Pozytywki. In the far distance, you can make out the platform lighting of W-wa Jeziorki station, although ul. Żmijewska doesn't reach that far, it just peters out in the fields, just like the next 'street' running parallel to it to the south, ul. Katarynki. This is the southernmost end of Jeziorki.

And to the north - and just across the tracks at W-wa Dawidy - a splendid new and temporary view of the skyline of Warsaw's upcoming new central business district around Rondo Daszyńskiego, in Wola (below). In the foreground, the junction of the S2 and S79; the new S7 extension will connect here with the S79. Photo taken from a huge hill of soil that's part of the new roadworks around here.

Below: ulica Dumki threads its way between the southern ponds (the one on the left is totally dry - you can walk across it. Not even muddy).

Below: panorama of central Warsaw, with a LOT Dreamliner coming into land at Warsaw Okęcie airport. Photo taken from the path of the S7 (under construction).

Below: corduroy field stretching from ul. Dawidowska to ul. Trombity, chimneys of Siekierki power station on the horizon.

Below: view from the far end of my back garden, arable field to the left (barley or oats) and fallow fields to the right.

Below: ul. Karczunkowska.  Memento mori - a roadside cross commemorating the victim of a traffic accident. This is the most dangerous stretch of the road, with no pavement on either side. In winter or autumn or after heavy rains it can be impossible to walk anywhere but on the asphalt, sharing the roadway with speeding traffic.

Below: a threatening sky, sunset not too far; drainage ditch running north-west from ul. Kórnicka, and a southbound train on the horizon.

A much-needed rain shower passing over the last house along ul. Dumki.

Below: part of tourist trail (szklak turystyczny) MZ-5142-z between ul. Dumki and Sarabandy; it runs from W-wa Dawidy station all the way via the Las Kabacki forest to the Vistula at Ciszyca.

* Later in 2020, the City of Warsaw was to 'unstreet' ul. Żmijewska - the sign has gone from the building on the corner of ul. Pozytywki, leaving only a dirt track.

This time last year:

Spitalfields and Smithfields - more from London

This time three years ago

That tune going round your head now...

This time four years ago:
The eyes... the eyes... 

This time five years ago:
New old terminal open at Okęcie airport

This time seven years ago:
Arrogance vs. humility 

This time eight years ago:
Warsaw looking good ahead of the football-fan influx

This time nine years ago:
Heron over Jeziorki

This time 13 years ago:
Present rising, future loading

New bus stop for Karczunkowska

Summer is the time for minor tweaks to Warsaw's public transport system, new routes introduced, roadworks, trasy zmienione - yesterday Jeziorki got a brand new bus stop. Well, two - one in each direction. Named Pozytywki for the road that branches off ul. Karczunkowska between the two. Pozytywki 01 is for services towards ul. Puławska and Ursynów (calling at Metro Stokłosy on the way), while Pozytywki 02 is for services towards PKP Jeziorki.

Below: a westbound 209 bus pulls away from Pozytywki 02, heading for the temporary loop by Biedronka (once the viaduct over the railway line is complete, the bus loop will be moved to the other side of the tracks). As you can see, the bus stop sign is provisional, and there's no bus shelter here.

Left: Pozytywki 01. The siting of  these two stops is intended for people working at the new Totalbud  Karczunkowska business park, as well as for the state security printing works, PWPW. A good location, as up till now, people wanting to use public transport would either have to walk between 350m and half a kilometre from existing bus stops.

Note lack of bus stop name on the temporary sign. The in-bus announcements also fail to mention its name: 'Następny przystanek" - ... [silence]. Soon after: "Następny przystanek - Karczunkowska". Wonder when this will change.

Too many people drive to PWPW. They leave their cars littered along the grass verges and pavements; at least they can no longer claim that they must drive to work because the bus stops are too far away.

The screenshot from Google Earth (below) shows the location of the new stops in relation to the Trombity and Karczunkowska stops. Click to enlarge - you can see just how necessary the new stops are, by two large zakłady pracy (the word 'workplace' is inadequate here!).

The ZTM website as of yesterday includes the new bus stop on the timetables (below) for route 209 (the L39 currently terminates on Puławska, by bus stop Karczunkowska 01 - hopefully just for the summer). Incidentally, the numbers by the names of the bus stops are... the numbers of the bus stops, and not the number of minutes between each stop. The bizarre one is PKP Jeziorki 53, I guess the '53' denotes a temporary/provisional stop.

The online timetable also shows bus times from the two new stops, as you can see, three buses an hour during the peaks - although bear in mind it's the summer; by autumn there will be more. And, no doubt, by the time the viaduct's ready, there will be more buses serving Karczunkowska.

Below: ZTM's public transport map of Warsaw (which now covers from Nadarzyn in the south-west to Tłuszcz in the north-east and from Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki in the north-west to Celestynów in the south-east) includes the city's latest bus stop - Pozytywki. Very impressive that it's so up to date!

So - Warsaw's public transport continues to get better and better. Now to tempt those idle fossil-fuel guzzlers out of their cars and into the buses!

This time six years ago:
Who should pay for railways?
[Interesting stuff about America's advanced electric railway line over the Rockies - built over 100 years ago!]

This time eight years ago:
Grunwald - the big picture

This time ten years ago:
"Take me right back to the track, Jack"

This time 11 years ago:
The summer sublime

Local update at the start of the last week of Lent

A lovely warm day, with temperatures into double digits - the best way to clear snow, with the sun's rays rather than rain. A long walk (12,000 paces today), and time for a local update. It looks like ul. Karczunkowska will have a new bus stop, between the new Totalbud building and the state security-printers, PWPW. The new bus stop will be 450m from the one on the corner of Puławska and 400m from Trombity. This makes sense. Too many PWPW employees drive in by car, parking on verges, pavements even on street corners. Take away an excuse to use the car, and conditions will be better.

Though work should have started on 12 March, it hasn't really - will the new bus stop be ready by 30 April? And will it be called Pozytywki (50m from corner of Karczunkowska and ul. Pozytywki) or PWPW?

Spring is here, astronomical and meteorologic; I spot my first toad, making its way across Pozytywki towards the pond, now ice-free.

A look from the (unnamed because it's meant to be temporary) road linking ul. Gogolińska and Karczunkowska round the side of Biedronka. A nice view of the viaduct as it begins to take shape.

Meanwhile ul. Trombity is still being dug up for the water mains, so Monday-Friday during work hours, there's no getting through.


Coming soon - a Lenten review of the late Steven Hawking's A Brief History of Time.

This time last year:
"Jeziorki bogged down in railway mud"
Guys - NOTHING. HAS. CHANGED.

This time two years ago:
Ideas, and how they take hold

This time three years ago:
Russian eyes peering down on Jeziorki

This time ten years ago:
The fate of urban wetlands?

Mid-winter in late Feb

Work and duties have slowed down my Lenten reading and writing. The paces, however, keep on keeping on (average of over 12,000 this week). Temperatures have plummeted; overnight low was -15C, daytime high today -7C. The ponds have frozen over.

Below: a sight humans rarely get to see - when one can wander across to where the herons nest (the trees to the left). The pond by the top end of ul. Trombity.

Below: the pond on ul. Pozytywki - also solidly frozen after nearly a week of sub-zero temperatures. Rare for it to get so cold in late February

Below: out in Jakubowizna, another Eric Ravilious-style landscape.

Below: outside the domek on the działka. Bathroom's done, kitchen next, once the frosts ease.

This time last year:
Ten years of digital photography

This two years ago:
Between atheism and creationism

This time three years ago:
A peek into the Afterlife
[the best piece I've written about my spiritual quest]

This time four years ago:
The new dupes of Moscow

This time five years ago:
Late-winter commuting, Jeziorki

This time six years ago:
My Nikon D80 five years on

This time seven years ago:
My Nikon D80 four years on

This time nine years ago:
Nikon D80 two years on

This time ten years ago:
Nikon D80 one year on

From city centre to suburb in the snow

Homeward bound at the end of the working week, having popped by for an ale or three with the lads at The Alchemist Gastropub (Pl. Piłsudskiego 3). Well recommended - my third visit there this year (!). Coming back across an Ogród Saski touched by the magic of a heavy snowfall, I am transported to the sublime plane, a different reality takes hold (below).

Across the Saxon Axis, the lights of Marszałkowska in the distance and a searchlight in the sky, the beauty of Ogród Saski comes to the fore, statues, fountain, geometry.

Approaching ul. Królewska as it crosses Marszałkowska, the park yields unto city centre (below). The temperature is only just below zero, the snow wet, so it sticks to branches and wires.

Below: Marszałkowska is quiet, the snow has been removed, the liquorice-slick asphalt reflects the street lighting. From Świętokrzyska Metro station I'm transported swiftly to Wilanowska, from where I board a 709 towards Jeziorki.

The magical appearance of Jeziorki clad in fresh snow prompted me to carry on southwards on the bus so I could walk home the long way, from Dąbrówka along ul. Katarynki and Pozytywki. Below: the car dealerships flanking Puławska - Lexus, Renault, Volvo have their stocks covered in snow, the different coloured street lighting give a strange otherworldly cast to the snow.

Below: ul. Pozytywki (lit. Music Box St.), the electricity cables coated in snow. Here in the southernmost parts of Warsaw the atmosphere is almost rural, farms and small businesses among the new houses.

Below: wrought iron fencing and trees covered with a heavy layer of wet snow, now setting firm as the temperature falls. Klimat.

This time two years ago:
The simple, useful beauty of Gov.uk

This time three years ago:
A warm blanket of snow

This time four years ago:
Tinker, Tailor - the allure of film-going

This time eight years ago:
Trundling Tamara