Rail transport in Poland
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The Polish railways network currently consists of around 19,599 km of track, of which the vast majority is electrified using a 3kV DC overhead line system.
Although the network is generally electrified and well maintained the vast majority of the track was layen by the Communist authorities from the year 1946 onwards or was, in a significant number of cases, laid before the second world war by an assortment of different rail companies, including, among others, the Deutsche Reichsbahn and Russian Imperial State Railways. The average age of Poland's railway network is now so great that many sections of track are limited to speeds of 100km/h or less and although 'high-speed lines' do exist they rarely exceed an average speed limit of 160km/h; the exception to this rule being the Central Rail line which runs from Warsaw to Katowice and allows speeds of up to around 220km/h (soon to be upgraded to 260km/h).
The Polish government currently have plans in the pipeline to build a dedicated high speed line based upon the French TGV model and possibly even to use French built TGV style trains by 2014 ,which, beginning in Warsaw would follow a route taking it on to Poznan via Lodz with a fork there allowing trains to divert south-westerly to Wroclaw. This line would, like the French TGV lines, allow speeds of up to 320km/h, although it remains to be seen as to whether any of this will become a reality.
Polskie Koleje Panstwowe, a majority state owned company, is the main provider of railway service. The PKP group holds an almost unrivaled monopoly over rail services in Poland as it is both supported and partly funded by the national government.
- PKP
- PKP Intercity (Services which, over long distances, connect major population hubs throughout the country with each other using extremely powerful modern locomotives and rolling stock. These trains are currently the most expensive to travel on but do undoubtedly provide an extremely comfortable journey and excellent service.)
- EuroCity (International long-distance trains)
- EuroNight (International night trains)
- PKP Przewozy Regionalne (Regional services which link less important cities and towns with each other and in some cases also large population hubs. Can be both long or short distance services and usually have long trip durations.)
- PKP Ekspres (Express trains are currently operated in the same way as regional trains by PKP Przewozy Regionalne and serve many of the same routes. They are however, as the name suggests, much faster than normal regional trains as they do not stop anywhere other than large, important stations.)
Currently many foreign services operate on the Polish Railways network, many of these are, as previously stated, Eurocity or Euronight trains operating between Western and Eastern European destinations, most notably the Polonez express which operates between Moscow and Berlin via Warsaw. These trains generally consist of many varied units from differnet rail operators which are added to the train as it passes through their area of operation. They can, due to this, have rather a multinational look about them. Few international trains are operated by PKP as Poland is seen as more of an international Rail junction as opposed to a destination or provider of such services; therefore many Poles wishing to travel further afield catch German or Russian operated international services as they pass through the country's main rail terminals such as Warszawa Centralna.
[edit] Rapid Transit
Rail transport has many uses in Poland and although this is generally kept within the long/short distance passenger and freight category it is also used in the form or Rapid transit in some areas. This includes:
- SKM in the Tri-city area of Northern Poland
- Warszawska Kolej Dojazdowa A suburban railway in the capital Warsaw
- Warsaw Metro An underground metro system in operation in Warsaw which is currently undergoing a period of rapid expansion and modernisation.
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