Post #3793226

2026-07-12 13:49 UTC

There's two snags that will need clearing here, as far as I can see - one is tariff integration between the long-distance trains and regionals, so they can act as a fairly regular intertown service together - this is something the government is considering, in a form comparable with the German model (select sections of longer routes synchronized with regional Takts and accepting regional tickets). The other - with all the trains pulling into Zduńska Wola station, which has only three platform tracks and connections to the Coal Trunk on in both directions on the same side, it will see double the passenger traffic it has now, even accounting for Wrocław trains replaced with HSR. In addition to the north-south trains mentioned before and an addition of rapid regionals Łódź-Sieradz, there would a remaining bihourly Warsaw-Łódź-Wrocław service, which in this iteration was rerouted between Skierniewice and Zduńska Wola via the planned "Y" HSL, while the route via Pabianice and Łask would be taken by a 2h Lublin-Szczecin service, rerouted via Radom, Łódź and Kalisz and extended to Szczecin from Poznań. Now, I'm no expert on capacity improvements, but I feel like with this maneuver, while there'll be more room for ŁKA locals on the "old" exits from Łódź, fitting these north-south trains between the dominant east-west traffic in Zduńska Wola in a coherent way is going to pose some difficulty without a bit of expansion. 10/ #HRJ #kolej #rail

Replies (1)

@HaTetsu@mastodon.com.pl 2026-07-13 20:45

Indeed, I think Łódź Voivodeship was one of the parts most affected by the changes to the project. In other things, connections north from Łódź were increased with a second 2h line P31 Kraków-Bydgoszcz joining and creating a pair with the previously proposed P11 Bielsko-Biała-Gdynia, and a formalized Flisak route U47 Łódź-Płock-Rypin-Grudziądz-Malbork-Gdynia with a 4h takt. Combined with hourly regionals to Kutno (increasing to half-hourly in peak), I think the single-track line should be able to handle it with the planned extra double-track sections. The other remaining big change is the creation of "capacity reservations for possible connections of a regional character" on the high-speed line, running from Kalisz to Sieradz on the old line, then onto the HSL, through Łódź, and splitting off after Brzeziny and alternating between Skierniewice and Łowicz, two major towns on the border with the Mazovian voivodeship. Interestingly enough, the new map shows a new HSL station just for these "tentative" trains in Wodzierady (a village which, despite the impression created by the schematic map, is actually closer to Szadek than Zduńska Wola). I'm sure the government thinks this is a good opportunity to win over some PiS voters, but they're not going to get the credit for putting it on a map… They ought to be praying they're in power by the time it's time for the ribbon-cutting. 11/ #HRJ #kolej #rail

Open ##3793224