#kolej

Moving on, Lublin. Here, the idea is to build an HSL, albeit probably one with parameters more similar to the existing CMK than the new Y or French LGVs. The line would branch out from the Warsaw-Terespol line around Mińsk Mazowiecki (also known as a train repair works town where Newag's anticompetitive geofencing triggered on trains in regular service), making its way to Łuków in gentle curves bypassing Siedlce, the cutting straight to Lubartów and Lublin. This was another eyebrow-raiser, given that this routing increases the distance between Warsaw and Lublin… but on the other hand eliminates direction changes in Lublin for trains headed to points south, with a new, straightened out and heavily upgraded corridor to Stalowa Wola, and a brand-new, shorter line from around Nisko or Rudnik nad Sanem to Rzeszów would enable Warsaw-Rzeszów times of 2 hours, which also suggests HSR there. Another branch would head straight for Zamość, followed by Tomaszów Lubelski and the Ukrainian border, with the idea that it would connect to Lviv. This routing is pretty significant, and a likely bone of contention 13/ #ZSKPolska #Lubelskie #rail #kolej

For all that the south-east is considered PiS's home turf, the new Wild plan appears to have given up on dragging HSLs out there and opted more for local density improvements and upgrades of existing lines… But when the gov map was unveiled, the point he seized on to criticize it was, perhaps surprisingly, TENT. I'll admit I was not aware the current TENT supplementary core network includes a new line Siemiatycze-Biała Podlaska-Parczew… but it does. And Wild wasted no time ranting on Xitter about it being completely missing from gov planning (for defense reasons, I assume). In its place, the government proposes connections in Łuków, as well as new line connecting the HSL from the direction of Lublin to around Międzyrzec Podlaski via Radzyń Podlaski, more for freight than passenger use, if the models are to be believed 14/ #ZSKPolska #Lubelskie #kolej #rail

I'll admit my confidence in my ability to cover all this and whether it was a good idea is slightly dented. I think there's a reason I prefer to talk about things closer to materializing. But anyway, Wild has reached the conclusion that the aim of the project was to mess up most north-south TEN-T lines and delay things: https://xcancel.com/WildPatryk/status/2066920525746634875 Which, well, he's the one who's been keeping up with the exploratory study work, and he's got a point with regard to throwing existing ones out… On the other hand, the ZSK routing north of Łomża seems passenger-friendlier to me, if in no small part because it means more people get intra-voivodeship relations (which is a pretty silly reason objectively, but the practical consequences are what they are - I suppose military considerations do speak for a straighter route, though - things are going to be tough). 15/ #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

For Subcarpathia, aside from the aforementioned HSL for Stalowa Wola and Rzeszów, there's the idea of using a line that supplies a power plant in Połaniec on the Vistula as the base of a new Kielce-Rzeszów corridor connecting Mielec and Kolbuszowa. The shadow plan opts for just Połaniec-Mielec and a curve bypassing Dębica for the Rzeszów connection, which seems like a more economical option unless traffic on the Kraków-Rzeszów-Przemyśl trunk gets really bad - and even then the gov plan envisions upgrading it to 250, which ought to put quadruple-tracking into consideration, I think? In the south, the proposals are a curve allowing trains from Rzeszów to turn towards Krosno without having to trek several kilometers west to Jasło and back, and a Wisłoka valley line between Dębica and Jasło (which they apparently see some interregional traffic on), as oppsed to the shadow project's Rzeszów-Krosno and Rzeszów-Sanok tunnel-fests. Both plans recommend cutting the detour between Stalowa Wola and Sandomierz/Metan that exists probably solely because that's where the Austria-Russia border was back when that system was being built. 16/ #Podkarpackie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

And now, we get to another eyebrow-raiser - ZSK's surprising new answer to the Kraków-Silesia question. The CMK, Poland's original HSL-to-be, serves Warsaw's connections to both the Upper Silesia-Zagłębie conurbation and Kraków. However, having been originally designed with more freight use in mind, it has a nice chord finish towards the former… while the more numerous Kraków-bound trains have to deal with a non-collision-free, single-track exit (which is to be rectified soon) and the increasingly bottlenecked Kraków-Kozłów section of the old Warsaw-Kielce-Kraków line. The Wild solution to this conundrum was to extend the CMK to a new junction around Bukowno near Olkusz, which seems to have grown over time into a station and gained the name Lesser Poland-Silesia Junction (also known by the abbreviation WMŚ), presumably from its border location. Anyway, from there, feeding trains into Katowice is still easy (though results in Sosnowiec and Dąbrowa Górnicza being stripped of a large number of long-distance connections), a new line is built towards Kraków via Olkusz and another one south to Oświęcim. It's not a bad idea and was pretty broadly accepted, not least because it also solves the long-standing problem of Olkusz having a significantly worse connection to its voivodeship capital than by road, even if it involves some hill-, forest-, mine- and desert-dodging 17/ #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

The minds behind ZSK, however, apparently saw differently, in a way that's either really far-sighted (if traffic to Kielce or Kraków-Łódź explodes, or the CMK does end up so congested that speeds have to be limited, which is still hard to imagine) or a dumb waste of money and people's time… namely, a mixed-use sorta HSL line ("HSL standard" is thrown around a fair bit in ZSK to indicate lines that should be HSLs… but don't all look like they'd actually end up dedicated HSLs) branching out in Opoczno, following the existing line until Końskie (a political shrine by now), then a shorter route to Kielce, then along the existing line to Busko-Zdrój (that area is bound to see attention disproportionate to its population density, which is of course why hardly anyone can agree in all but the broadest of strokes how exactly it should be handled), then to around Kazimierza Wielka (formerly home to a system of windy narrow-gauge lines) where it would meet a sort-of hump line connecting it to both Kraków and Tarnów. This would be supposed to take some ICs off the old line between the two… Though it seems unclear how this would be handled around Kraków Główny, also in combination with the last part of this idea - a Kraków-Katowice HSL apparently routed alongside the A4 motorway. Tunneling east-west under the whole city doesn't seem workable to me, but perhaps something more limited would happen? Or maybe the trains would take the Nowa Huta ring south to Podłęże and enter the city from that way? In any case, the ZSK project spends quite a few words touting the benefits of a Katowice-Kraków-Kielce-Łódź/Warsaw arc, which would perhaps sound more convincing if they weren't also planning a big new trunk between Katowice and Łódź, too. Then again, I wonder, maybe this is what it take to cope with a world where the train is the majority mode of transport. It's a slippery vision. 18/ #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

Looking further up that arc there's one of the more ambitious projects I have fewer reservations about, a new north-south trunk through the middle of Łódź Voivodeship, from Radomsko via Bełchatów and Łódź to Kutno (and onwards over the existing line to Płock to connect with the new HSL to the Tricity and the new transversal northeastwards). That's intended to be possibly even 250 in parts and seems like a reasonable conclusion after we've given up on doubling all of the existing Łódź-Kutno line in favor of point improvements (the northern half is also in the shadow plan, in addition to a line connecting the southern suburbs of Łódź with Piotrków, following the road network more closely). Combined with a much-needed Wieluń-Chorzew-Bełchatów-Piotrków corridor (I'd treat Piotrków-Tomaszów as more of stretch goal), this should play a good role in turning Bełchatów from a lignite town into a good commuter town (and God, I had not realized that power plant was only opened in 1982). In addition, both projects want to straighten some things out with Opoczno-Przysucha and Kielce - Skarżysko-Kamienna shortcuts, though ZSK probably assigns higher parameters to both of these, I wonder what differences they're seeing there 19/ #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail #Łódzkie

I suppose this is getting really overlong (maybe I should practice writing in private, somewhere scrapers aren't lying in wait to build a fingerprint of me or something), so I'll try for more brevity. in the south-west, it feels like the ZSK is breaking a sort of taboo, or at least some of the ideas behind @Alon@mastodon.social's thinking are now finding their expression in official plans with Gliwice-Opole-Wrocław-Poznań dedicated HSR for the first time. Expect this to be highly-contested, as Wild doesn't see it as a priority (though particularly Poznań-Wrocław doesn't have two existing corridors like Wrocław-Opole and Opole-Gliwice do). I also find surprising that ZSK gives Polkowice not just a regional line, but outright reroutes most passenger traffic between Wrocław and Głogów through there, to the point of including a Ścinawa-Lubin connection to detour the regional trains running the old route through Polkowice, as well. I know place has actual industry and it's where everyone's favorite Polish shoe and apparel giant is based, but does this make the place quite that important? So important that they're going to be looking into awkward approaches circling around Głogów from the south to the east? I wouldn't say so. 20/ #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

I also really need to draw attention to the weirdness of how the to-be-reactivated-and-serve-military-purposes Żagań-Zebrzydowa line somehow becomes a secondary trunk in favor of Żary-Węgliniec, and, in the freight model, somehow takes over a pretty big stream of freight traffic coming from Głogów, which would pretty much require building a curve they don't show to avoid turning trains in Żagań, that then goes Zebrzydowa-Nowogrodziec(reactivation)-Lubań Śląski(brand-new line)-Mikułowa-Zawidów(all existing)-(Czechia). That's not even consistent with the main map which shows a bunch of these as minor regional lines. Like, seriously, what the hell is this: 21/ #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

So, Western Pomerania… aside from the aforementioned HSL from Poznań via Gorzów that somehow managed to secure cross-party consensus, ZSK has five ideas here, and most of them raise *my* eyebrows. First, they want to build a Szczecin outer ring following the expressway one that's getting started. That might be good for freight, and down the line also passenger traffic, but their models seem to have the proportions backwards for some reason. Also crossing the Oder there looks like it would have to skirt protected wetlands, but judging from junction shapes they're already planning to do it with damned road, aren't they. The second is rerouting Tricity-Szczecin traffic via Kołobrzeg, Trzebiatów and… Kamień Pomorski, via a rebuilt line, or maybe one routed closer to the area's well-known beach town Rewal and Trzęsacz. And between Koszalin and Kołobrzeg the whole line would be rerouted to run via Mielno, Koszalin's own beach town that currently gets summer service on a municipally-owned branch line. Which… routing via Kołobrzeg and Płoty, and upgrading the line to match, I can understand now that I realize it's roughly the same distance as the current route, but via the more important towns. I suppose I get why they routed the S6 expressway that way now. And sure, let seasonal services run through Kamień, and Mielno should keep its branch. But to detour *all IC traffic* via Mielno and Rewal/Kamień which *does* add kilometers? Nah. A line out from Darłowo towards Koszalin doesn't sound like a huge priority, except maybe militarily? Building more rails *just* to run extra trains through the airport also gets a nah from me. And then there's Wysoka-Płoty-Świdwin-Połczyn-Szczecinek. This is mostly a reconstruction of old lines, except that they decided to straighten things out at the eastern end where the original line turned north to Grzmiąca. The idea is apparently that this would bring a direct connection from the port of Świnoujście to bases in inland Pomerania. 22/ #Zachodniopomorskie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

Nie jestem fanem półtoragodzinnych przesiadek, Lecz dziś jadę Podhalaninem, Więc zrobię wyjątek. Powinienem jechać do Poznania o wpół piątej, Ale po co? I tak będzie opóźniony. Miałem jechać o piątej, Ale już 50 minut opóźnienia, Zdążę następnym. Mógłbym jechać do Stargardu osobowymi. Wtedy byłbym punktualnie, Mógłbym rozprostować nogi. Ale po co czekać w Stargardzie, Jak mogę w Poznaniu? 🤡 Przynajmniej pospałem pół godziny dłużej. Podhalanin to nie pociąg, To legenda! Zaplanowany tak, by maksymalizować opóźnienie. #kolej #PKP #InterCity

W piątek mam rozkmine. Urwać sie z pracy i jechać na Olsztyn bez miejsca siedzącego czyli 3h stania w sumie ale bede dzień wcześniej i zaimprezuje z rodzina (jak zdaze na kolejny pociąg do wsi kolejne 1.5h) Albo następny dzień jechać rano z miejscem siedzącym ale rodzina będzie na wylocie przed wyjazdem w niedziele. Wyjazd na miesiąc wiec próbowałem upchac Switcha ale nie wiem czy sie zmiesci. Torba typu "na siłownię" minimalizuje bagaż ale jeszcze laptop pracowy musze z biura upchnac. Lubie jazdę koleja ale bez miejscówki ani filmu nie obejrzę i z czytaniem tez gorzej. Taki troche niechciany pasażer 3 kategorii. #kolej #pkp

Dziś odpowiem na trudne pytanie, które czasem słyszę: "czy panu się to opłaca?" Otóż, opłaca mi się. Dziękuję za uwagę. A tak poważnie, to pozwolę sobie zastosować prostą arytmetykę. Jeżdżę zwykle 5 dni w tygodniu. To daje jakieś 260 dni w roku. W rzeczywistości będzie tego więcej, bo czasem wpadnie jakiś wyjazd do lekarza, weta, urzędu. Karta kosztuje 12100 zł na rok. Przy powyższym uproszczeniu, to daje jakieś 46,50 zł na jeden wyjazd. Moi drodzy, za 46,50 zł to ja nawet do Ponieca nie pojadę (licząc powrót). Owszem, zdarzają mi się krótsze (tańsze) wyjazdy, ale z reguły jeżdżę "drożej". A że mieszkam na wiosce, to z reguły wchodzi przynajmniej dwóch przewoźników. #PKP #InterCity #kolej #mikol

Wizualizacja jak wizualizacja, mam nadzieję że będzie robić wrażenie jak dziś Zachodnia. #cpk #Kolejhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muQkUmm7_P8

Wczoraj jechałem pociagiem. Przyjechał punktualnie, ale musiał “przełożyć kierownicę” do drugiej kabiny. Wystąpiły po drodze drobne problemy. Zanim ruszyliśmy, konduktorka poinformowała jeszcze, że okna w ruch, bo klima się zepsuła. Na część pasażerów padł blady strach. Po drodze zacięły się drzwi. Na całej długości pociągu. Nie dało się wysiąść. Później wyczułem po obsłudze pociągu, że coś jeszcze się zepsuło. Ale nie wiem, co. Wysiadłem na swojej stacji. Dzień wcześniej na każdej stacji maszynista wysiadał z kabiny, szedł do skrzynki i coś tam przestawiał. Dopiero po tym ruszaliśmy. Dzisiaj uczucie jakby pociąg “zgasł” zaraz po ruszeniu. Zobaczymy, co będzie dalej. Polska kolej się modernizuje - świetnie. Ale chyba ktoś zawalił z wymianą taboru na czas, bo niektóre regionalne składy już od dawna proszą o kurs na cmentarzysko pociągów. A nadal muszą jeździć, bo nowych i sprawnych brak. Pociągu nie kupi się, jak roweru - wchodzisz do sklepu i wyjeżdzasz nowym. Więc chyba trochę jesteśmy w kropce. #kolej

Z ciekawszych rzeczy w lipcowym wydaniu Z Biegiem Szyn:

• Kolej plus Łomża - kronika przywrócenia kolei do Łomży, która pokazuje, że nie jest takie znowu jasne, która strona sporu politycznego doprowadziła do tego
• Porozumienie na styku - niezły opis tego, co osiągnięto na granicy mazowieckiego i łódzkiego w czerwcowej korekcie
• Uciekające autobusy - o chorej sytuacji z nowo tworzonymi przez województwo mazowieckie regionalnymi liniami autobusowymi (na przykład jak nie rozpisali przetargu na czas i wygasła umowa, to tryb awaryjny zastosowali… tylko w dwóch z trzech regionów - region Przysuchy i Szydłowca zostawili z niczym)
• Lokomotywy, wagony i mąż swojej żony - wykorzystanie wagonów wyremontowanych z KPO na trasach komercyjnych i zagranicznych niezgodnie z założeniami projektu? No problem, dyrektorką od projektów kolejowych w CUPT jest żona dyrektora PKPIC ds. strategii, który odpowiada za wykonywanie projektów unijnych!
• Objazdowy problem z taborem spalinowym - zerwanie sieci za Opalenicą pokazało jak w soczewce nasze problemy z taborem spalinowym, gdzie pociągi do Berlina jeździły z objazdem przez Szczecin Dąbie (i tak, potem z powrotem na południe do Rzepina)
• Jeden z ostatnich takich dworców - PKP SA na razie nie będzie mogło wyburzyć dworca w Mikołowie, ponoć jednego z ostatnich jeszcze niezamienionych na nowe budynków z lat 90., do którego zastąpienia zupełnie nowym zaczęli się zabierać - wszczęto postępowanie o wpisanie na listę zabytków

Czytajcie pod https://www.zbs.net.pl/zbs143.pdf

#kolej #ZBiegiemSzyn #PKP #PKPIC

In the Lubusz Voivodeship, aside from the aforementioned U17, the connection to Legnica via Przemków and the already announced move of the primary long-distance connection to Poznań onto the to-be-rebuilt-and-heavily-upgraded line via Międzychód, the new iteration brings another U line to serve as an early implementation of part of the proposed "Western Trunk" service - the 4h U33 Gorzów Wielkopolski-Zbąszynek-Zielona Góra-Wołów-Wrocław. The P24 Gdynia-Tczew-Piła-Gorzów-Kostrzyn service following the route of the Ostbahn-running Bory Tucholskie gets downgraded to a U line and 4h Takt, which is fair enough. Instead, regional services between Gorzów and Krzyż would be boosted to hourly. The new plan includes also two reactivations not present in the 2024 version - the Gorzów-Myślibórz line would be rebuilt one station to "Gorzów Wielkopolski Strefa Ekonomiczna", which I assume corresponds to the old halt in the western suburb of Chróścik, and would provide a no doubt welcome, traffic jam-free alternative route to the many workers in the industrial and warehouse park. Perhaps an extension one stop further, to Baczyna, would make even more sense, but I guess land issues and likely poor prospects for partnership with the neighboring rural Lubiszyn Commune where that station would then be located might play a role in that decision also. The other, bigger one is Rzepin-Sulęcin-Międzyrzecz. Sulęcin was previously marked as a "bus service county town", but is now supposed to get trains back after all. This line is extant, and operational between Międzyrzecz and Trzemeszno Lubuskie for the supply of the garrison in Wędrzyn. The new axis thus created is unlikely to account for much in the big picture at first - but maybe in a battery-powered future it could be a good route to bypass problems around Zbąszyń to some extent? 14/ #HRJ #kolej #rail

In the south-west, a new 2h long-distance route P18 Wrocław-Kluczbork-Częstochowa(-Kielce-Radom-Lublin with every other train) will bring back qualified trains to Namysłów, and together with hourly KD regionals, provide a strong service between Wrocław and the town of 20k. These trains, and also the existing trains towards Łódź and Warsaw via Ostrów Wielkopolski and Kalisz have been rerouted via the new HSL, a very necessary measure to make room in the Wrocław node for local traffic (one of the greatest issues with Wrocław Główny today is that trains in the north-eastern direction have to first go west and make a run around town, sharing significant trackage with trains towards Poznań, Zielona Góra, Szczecin, Berlin, Węgliniec, Zgorzelec and Jelenia Góra). Farther out, the Kłodzko line is seeing state-supported trains replaced with voivodeship ones with the Baltic Express rerouting (but as we've already noted, this is now significantly less likely to actually happen), while every other Warsaw-Opole train gets extended to Kłodzko via Nysa. 12/ #HRJ #kolej #rail

Additionally, two more lines were added to the list of what Lower Silesia intends to reactivate - Chocianów-Przemków-Niegosławice I already knew about, though the proposal that the Lubusz Voivodeship take over running it came as a surprise. Then there's Lwówek Śląski-Zebrzydowa. Which is currently mostly running as a freight line serving a mineral mine, so that makes sense. What is interesting about this corner is that the authors explicitly cited the newly-conceived line U17 Jelenia Góra-Węgliniec-Zebrzydowa-Żagań-Żary-Zielona Góra-Kostrzyn-Szczecin (4h) as an example of optimizations made by using the Passenger Transport Model, which led to the route being drawn via Gryfów, Lubań and Węgliniec instead of the to-be-restored direct route via Lwówek. Which also added two direction changes but with multiple units that's not a problem at all (stares at Polish layover times with a direction change involved with a dubious expression). A north-south line that doesn't turn east with the Oder is not a bad idea, I just wonder about the execution with this route. 13/ #HRJ #kolej #rail

Wczorajszy wypad rowerowy przebiegał pod liniami kolejowymi.

Pierwsza fotka to przywracana częściowo do życia linia kolejowa 281 Oleśnica – Chojnice, AFAIK złapany na zdjęciu fragment tuż przed Więcborkiem na razie nie będzie uruchamiany.

Pozostałe trzy zdjęcia to elementy nieistniejącej już linii 240 Świecie nad Wisłą – Złotów:

• pierwsze z nich to wiadukt nad polną drogą z Wituni w stronę Nowego Dworu
• na drugim jest kolejowy most nad szosą Więcbork – Nowy Dwór, ale po przebudowie szosa idzie obok, w miejscu wyciętym w dawnym nasypie, a pod niepotrzebnym mostem stoi stół z ławkami otoczony potłuczonymi butelkami
• trzecie zrobiłem na polnej drodze między jeziorami Modla i Ostrowo, tuż za miejscowością Dwanaście Apostołów

#kolej #wiadukt #most #linia281 #linia240