Post #3581228

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