Post #3581196

2026-07-04 14:05 UTC

I don't want this thread to become quite the slog the the ZSK one felt to me, so let's start with the bit non-Poles will likely find the most interesting - #CrossBorderRail changes (relative to previous announcements)! On the Lithuanian border there's no change to long-distance plans - still a bihourly train from Kraków via Warsaw, Białystok, Ełk, Suwałki - but on the regional map it's shown that the planners apparently intend for Warmia-Masuria to front any possible restoration of regional traffic towards Kaunas, and it doesn't look like there were any objections so far. Let's hope they will have learned how to do trains properly by then (see https://mastodon.com.pl/@HaTetsu/116720881964644481). Eastern Slovakia, I've already covered in news reposting. I'm not sure where they got the notion that Slovakia would run hourly trains across the border to Łupków but, well, it's up Subcarpathia to make it happen. The new map also has the promised 4h line to Budapest via Muszyna and Košice, although it looks like the plan is to eventually shorten those trains to Kraków and have people change to faster ones there, or else non-systematically link them to other lines. This would replace the present service via Břeclav entirely, although I imagine connections with changes to the Metropolitan ought to remain possible. The map now includes stopping patterns in western Slovakia and Moravia - instead of throwaway "well, fast trains every 4h to Vienna and Budapest" lines, there's a whole hourly service to Vienna alternating between running the existing route via Otrokovice (those alternating between Wrocław and Kraków) and a to-be-straightened-out route via Brno (from Warsaw). Bratislava is expected to be handled by breaking away a couple of the latter trains, as well as previously proposed connections via Žilina - those are meant to be a panacea for capacity limits on the traditional Moravia route. Another new possibility raised is the possible diversion of a few pairs running through Chałupki to Košice. 2/ #HRJ #kolej #rail

Replies (1)

@HaTetsu@mastodon.com.pl 2026-07-04 14:07

The bigger change is in the west, where the Baltic Express would be increased to bi-hourly, bound to a line from Warsaw into an hourly Wrocław-Prague connection and rerouted via Wałbrzych-Mieroszów-Meziměstí-Náchod, removing long-distance traffic from Kłodzko-Międzylesie… Or would it? Problem is, according to documentation, this was agreed in October, before the Babiš government took over and scaled back railway investment, resulting in work on upgrading the Czech-side route with electrification and speed increases, including the Vysokov chord, necessary to finally stop routing everything between Náchod and Jaroměř with a double switchback, apparently getting punted off further into the future. According to a puzzled SkyscraperCity user, the whole thing is off until at least 2040 now. There's a disturbing parallel to the expressway through the nearby Lubawka crossing where the Czechs only got around to starting construction of their bit around the time Poland's was finished. Finally, on the German border, most of the new is a significant increase in planned traffic through Frankfurt (Oder) with the retention of slots on the existing Berlin-Warszawa-Express route in addition to new trains running over the new Warsaw-Poznań HSL, as well as… the extension of every other RE1 from Frankfurt to Rzepin. It seems from the report that despite repeated requests to guarantee at least 1.5 slots per hour for trains to Poland between Berlin and Frankfurt, the Germans aren't actually making any promises in that regard. Harnessing the RE1 might be a good way around that, but it depends on a whole bunch of things, like VBB arranging for double-decker regional trains that can run between Germany and Poland, which almost certainly means a new type approval, or timetables being set up such that you don't have to then stew in Rzepin for half an hour to board the train actually going where you want to. 3/ #CrossBorderRail #HRJ #kolej #rail

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