#rail

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

Might be of interest to some of you... 🚅 #Interrail has 15% to 50% discount until 30 September. The passes are valid for 11 months. It came handy for me just now as I'll need to travel Brest-Prague-Brest this autumn but I'm not yet sure exactly when. Great opportunity for some exploring on the way. About the discount: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260924726921/en/Interrail-Invites-Travelers-to-Experience-The-Interrail-Effect-with-50-Off-Passes or https://parissecret.com/en/interrail-promotion/ Detailed explanation: https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm Interrail: https://www.interrail.com/en #Rail #Trains #CrossBorderRail

From Finland to Portugal by train in just 125 hours. Last week, Jon Worth, a railway activist who advocates for better cross-border train travel across Europe, completed the longest train journey in the EU – from Kemijärvi in northern Finland to Lagos in southern Portugal – in a speedy 125 hours and 31 minutes. https://mediafaro.org/article/20260917-from-finland-to-portugal-by-train-in-just-125-hours?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward #Trains #EU #LongestTrainEU #JonWorth #Rail #Travel #Europe #CrossBorderRail

A groovy view of a GO Train from the VIA Rail Canadian observation car. Feels weird flying to Vancouver, and then walking out of Union Station 4 days later #toronto #canada #trains #rail

I just got a message that BahnCard 25 is now available for only €29.99. It gives a year of discount at 25% on Save and Flex fares on DeutscheBahn. A couple of visits would easily cover that. #rail #deutschebahn #Germany

I like trains. https://youtu.be/HIgjFau47fc?si=Prh02BzJbeHHdZAF #trains #transport #EU #rail #europeanTrains #Interrail #DisoverEU #ILikeTrains #railTravel

My beloved AmCan The Amfleet car is so iconic. Proved, tried, and still looking as good as when they were new. #amtrak #trainstations #transit #rail #eisenbahn #railfan #railfanning #bahn #bahnbilder #기차 #역 #trains

two different generations absorbed in their phones in osaka japon #japan #japon #trainstation #bahnhof #photography #railway #rail #osaka

You can get used to travelling so well. VIA Rail Venture sets feature a semi-private seating in the business car #trains #bahn #bahnbilder #rail #railways #railfanning #trainstravel #travel

Love a hotel room with a view of a train stastion. Here is a photo of Osaka Station in Japon taken from the Osaka Ritz Carlton #japon #japan #trains #trainspotting #railfanning #rail #railroad #skylines #cities #trainstation #bahnhof #bahnbilder #bahn #기차

Positive news #MastoDaoine #Rail RTÉ News: Major expansion for Ireland's busiest rail corridor announced https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2026/0724/1584928-irish-rail/