Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Railways

  • PKP – Tczew to Gdansk

    PKP – Tczew to Gdansk

    After a week of visiting a number of towns in Northern Poland, it was time to go back to Gdansk. As mentioned when I arrived in Tczew, this is a modern railway station but it’s a bit soulless and lacking in much character.

    The main foyer area isn’t as grand and historic as the one in Malbork. There’s a fair amount of seating dotted around the station, both in this area and in the corridor above the platforms, although it was warmer in this bit.

    The usual sheet of train times, mine was the 11.25 into Gdansk.

    It’s not easily visible from this photo, but the train was delayed by 15 minutes, which was far from ideal. The train going to Vienna is listed above the train to Gdynia and it was apparent to me that it was unlikely to come in on the same platform as listed here, as the trains were coming from different directions. My train knowledge is sufficient to know that two trains due within one minute of each other and coming from different directions is a problem for signallers.

    As an aside, this train on another platform belongs to http://shortlines.pl/ who were an open access operator with high hopes, but their services have been dramatically reduced over the last few years.

    I’m not sure what the police (I think these are the equivalent of the British Transport Police) were doing with their big dog, but it looked quite friendly and was safely muzzled. This is the Vienna train coming in and it’s by now apparent that the train I want is coming in shortly and they’re going to have to use another platform. And that’s what happened, in Polish only (I mention this as in Gdansk there would usually be an announcement in English as well) there was a last-minute announcement that they shifting the Gdynia service to platform 2. So we all rushed over there…..

    I have to add, this travel can be a bloody nuisance and public transport operators don’t make things as easy as they perhaps could as they must have known some time before there was a platform change needed. There was a fallback that I could see a train to Gdynia with the regional network was leaving soon if I missed my booked service, but it’s all quite challenging to work out where to go.

    Apparently this is steam engine TKh 5699, in use on the Polish rail network between 1961 and 2002, when it was brought here to sit on the concourse.

    On board the train, I frankly couldn’t be bothered to find my reserved seat as I was getting off at the next stop and this group of chairs was empty. The screen gives updates on the service and that it’s running 15 minutes late.

    They’re quite a comfortable arrangement, the table extends for those wanting to use a laptop of spread out their bakery purchases, with power available under the seat.

    My ticket wasn’t checked during the journey, and there’s the train to the right and Gdansk railway station (still under modernisation) on the left.

    And back into Gdansk….. The journey was a nuisance in terms of trying to board the appropriate train, but everything was comfortable enough after that. The cost of the journey was about £2 and I purchased my ticket on-line in advance, although there are ticket machines at the railway station.

  • PKP – Malbork to Tczew

    PKP – Malbork to Tczew

    Moving a bit closer to Gdansk again today by going to Tczew, this is the railway station in Malbork which dates from 1891, with a previous building serving the railway from 1852.

    This was a Prussian railway station until the end of the Second World War and the decoration is certainly quite Germanic. This was the railway station that the Poles managed to stop the Red Army from setting on fire in 1945 and they did well to protect it given its heritage.

    The grand entrance foyer, with a shop to the left, a waiting room straight ahead and a ticket machine to the right. It really is a beautiful building and money was deliberately spent on it so that it could be the pride of Malbork. It was also a border railway station between the two wars, so the Polish and German trains used this as a changing point.

    The inside of the large waiting room, with several rows of wooden seats and a television for some entertainment. It was rather cold today, but this waiting room had been heated to ensure passengers didn’t have to endure the Arctic outside conditions.

    The entrance foyer again, from the other side to the previous photo. The ticket desk is visible in the background and there is a change visible just above it, they changed the Prussian emblem to the Polish eagle after the war.

    There’s the train I was getting, the 11:15 to Tczew. I hadn’t realised that this is also the train that comes from Krakow and Warsaw, before going to Gdansk and Gydnia.

    The very wide platform at Malbork, the reasons for which I haven’t worked out.

    I’m not really sure those narrow chimney things at the railway station are entirely ideal, although most are now propped up with metal supports.

    This was another short journey, so safely into Tczew within twenty minutes or so. The train, which is on the left, was quite busy and there were numerous school parties on board. I had carefully reserved a window seat this time so that I could video Tczew Bridge when going over it, but more about that in another post. Unlike many stations, such as Malbork, there’s an overhead corridor between platforms at Tczew rather than an underground one.

    Tczew railway station, not as glamorous as the Malbork buildings and its interiors, but it was functional and organised. As it was on the same line then as well, this railway station first opened in 1852, just as in Malbork. Tczew is a railway junction town which means that the station is relatively important, being the 32nd busiest in the country, which is proportionally much more than the town’s population. The fare was just under £2, so again, another comfortable and efficient journey with PKP Intercity.

  • PKP – Elbląg to Malbork

    PKP – Elbląg to Malbork

    Back to Elbląg railway station, this time for the twenty minute journey into Malbork, which is another new town for me.

    I didn’t look too much at this before, but it’s the grand hall at Elbląg railway station. There’s a little shop and waiting area to the left, with the ticket office on the right. I don’t buy tickets at the railway stations, it’s easier for me to do that on-line and just have the ticket on my phone.

    Mine was the 11:17 train, but there were fewer trains than I expected leaving from the station, roughly one per hour.

    Looking back at the station’s main hall from platform 2.

    And on time, my train pulls into the station, with something like 12 carriages. It was busier than I expected, but it’s an Intercity service rather than a regional train. An elderly Polish lady barged me and two other passengers out of the way, before realising that her large bag was too big to fit by her seat, so she caused a queue of people to wait whilst she shuffled back along the carriage with her excessive luggage. That sort of behaviour is unusual in Poland, but I’d have waited for her to board anyway, I was unsure of her desperate rush.

    The seat reservation system on Intercity trains has always been respected when I’ve been on Polish trains, something that the British system fails to achieve. The carriage was fairly full, but my seat was available without an issue. My ticket wasn’t checked, but there wasn’t much time for the staff to perform those checks given the short length of the journey. The view was mostly just countryside, this is a rural part of Poland, and unlike the regional trains, this Intercity train didn’t stop at the smaller railway stations en route.

    The train arrived into Malbork two minutes early.

    Rather wide platforms I thought…. The train fare to get here was £2 and everything ran as expected this time, unlike my journey to get to Elbląg.

    It’s a cold day in Malbork, it’s something of a temperature shock to go from the warmth of the train to the cold surroundings of Poland in January. The very Germanic looking building was constructed in 1891 and it survived the Second World War, but only because the Polish authorities were able to save it from an arson attack led by the Red Army.

    As an aside, the town (then known as Marienburg) voted in 1920 to join Eastern Prussia rather than Poland, so this was a German run railway station until the end of the Second World War. Although railway stations in Ireland were once operated by Great Britain before the country gained independence, this concept of places changing their names and being in different territories is still one that fascinates me, as it isn’t something I’ve needed to think about when in England for example.

  • PKP – Gdańsk Główny to Elbląg

    PKP – Gdańsk Główny to Elbląg

    This was meant to be a straightforward rail journey of just under one hour from Gdańsk Główny to Elbląg, using a PKP Intercity service.

    I’ve mentioned before that I find this to be the easiest way of seeing rail departures and arrivals, regularly updated yellow and white sheets. It’s far better than the UK system, with every stop listed so that it’s easy to understand where the trains are departing from and at what time. It’s surprisingly hard to get such clarity about the rail times and options when at a railway station in the UK.

    As an aside, this was the train to Berlin, which I had expected to be a little grander.

    And then to my slight disappointment, my 09:41 train started to show as delayed for nearly an hour. But just under it is a 09:44 train which is going to the same destination of Elbląg, it just takes a little longer. This gives me a dilemma as I don’t understand the Polish rail system well enough to know if I can transfer trains to that one, as I have a ticket for a specific train. It’s also a rural train (Przewozy Regionalne  or PR) which used to be part of PKP, but they’ve been given to the regional governments to operate, so it’s not the same company or set-up.

    As everyone got on the platform got on the train, I guessed that I could likely use this service. However, I’m not taking risks like that, so I went and asked the guard if I could get on his lovely train. He was friendly, grinned and pointed to get on. I was concerned whether he was grinning because he was excited that he could fine a passenger, but it transpired he was just keen to help. That friendliness seems to be path of the course in Poland, so it didn’t come as a complete surprise.

    What didn’t help was having my ticket checked a further two times by different guards, although they seemed satisfied with my ticket for the wrong train. The train itself was clean and modern, running to schedule and the signage on board was clear and timely.

    And safely into Elbląg, on time and without being fined or being told that I had the wrong ticket.

    It’s not the most glamorous of railway stations, but I was pleased to get there. There has been a railway station here since 1845, but it was rebuilt in 1937 and then repaired again following the end of the Second World War. On May 26, 1916, the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, arrived at the railway station on a visit to the city. Back then, the city was known as Elbing and was the second largest in East Prussia, the section of Germany which wasn’t connected to the rest of the country because of the Polish corridor.

    And the frontage of Elbląg railway station. Fortunately, everything went well, although I could have done without all of the confusion with the train delay. But I’m glad that I didn’t wait for my heavily delayed service, Gdansk railway station is undergoing modernisation and there’s not a great deal to do there at the moment.

  • Chiltern Railways : Warwick to Royal Leamington Spa

    Chiltern Railways : Warwick to Royal Leamington Spa

    Off on a little day trip to Royal Leamington Spa, which cost just over £2 return, which seemed a fair price for the rail journey. This is Warwick railway station, opened in October 1852 on the Oxford to Birmingham rail line, which is a surprisingly basic and tatty arrangement at the moment (the station, not the rail line). The railway station isn’t a listed building and there’s little to excite anyone in terms of the architecture.

    Not much has changed in the area over the last 120 years, although the footpath that meandered across the railway tracks has now been replaced by a tunnel.

    The delightful (well sort of) tunnel under the railway track.

    This is the main set of buildings on the Birmingham side, but there were once station buildings on the London platform side as well, but these have been demolished for customer comfort (or whatever excuse they used) and replaced by a rickety old outdoor waiting room area. The buildings on the Birmingham side are reduced from when the railway station was reconstructed after a fire in 1894. That fire was substantial and had been caused by the overheating of a stove in the booking office, with the fire brigade being able to save some of the structure. The staff were able to smash down some of the internal wooden partitions in a bid to save paperwork and a large stock of railway tickets. The local press noted:

    “During the time that the fire was raging, Police Inspector Hall and a staff of constables preserved admirable order, and effectively prevented the quickly gathering crowd from interfering with the efforts of the Fire Brigade and station officials”.

    I slightly wonder what they through the crowd were going to do. The press also added that the debris was quickly removed and that:

    “The old station was built from designs by Brunel and was principally of wood. It is is hoped by the townspeople that the Railway Company will now take the opportunity of erecting a handsome station, with every convenience for the travelling public”.

    They did get a new station, but I’m not sure it had every convenience….

    Welcome to Warwick for a great day out.

    It’s about a ten minute walk into the Warwick town centre.

    An old milestone noting that it was 108 miles to London Paddington, although this is a little irrelevant now as the trains don’t go to Paddington.

    There are nearly no facilities at this station, there’s a taxi office, a very small waiting room and not much else, with no proper shelter on this side of the lines. There are no toilets either, which seems an omission for what should be a relatively important station.

    A Great Western Railways bench, probably from the 1930s.

    The train came creeping into the station on time.

    The train was comfortable for the four minute journey…. There’s little of note really about this service, other than the train was clean, there were plenty of seats and there was power available (I managed to get my phone charge up by 2%). Everything was on time, although I didn’t see any staff during my four mintes.

    And after my long four minute journey, here’s Royal Leamington Spa, or just Leamington Spa in the eyes of the railway network.

    One of the waiting rooms at the station, this was restored in 2011 and is a useful space, with power, heat and doors that keep opening randomly. Unlike Warwick, there are toilet facilities at this station.

    It’s fair to say that Royal Leamington Spa railway station is much more architecturally impressive than the one that Warwick has. The first station here was also built in 1852, at the same time as the one at Warwick was constructed, but this grand Art Deco construction dates from between 1937 and 1939. But more on this another time as I’m back in Royal Leamington Spa in a few weeks for the LDWA AGM weekend.

    As a rail service, all was well and everything ran on time. I wonder though about what they can do with Warwick railway station, as the facilities are very poor compared to Leamington Spa. I know that Leamington Spa gets nearly five times as many passengers as Warwick, but something a little more exciting would be nice here. Anyway, I was once again entirely satisified with Chiltern Railways.

  • Chiltern Railways : London Marylebone to Warwick

    Chiltern Railways : London Marylebone to Warwick

    Back in London Marylebone, this time for a trip up to Warwick.

    I’ve written about Marylebone numerous times before, but I hadn’t noticed how much housing was demolished to construct it at the beginning of the twentieth century. The concourse of the railway station is where Harewood Square is on this map which is from just before the station was constructed.

    I was as early as ever arriving at the railway station, mine was the 12:34 to Birmingham Snow Hill.

    The platform number wasn’t announced until ten minutes before departure, which I didn’t think was ideal. It’s quite a pleasant little railway station to wait in and I meandered across to Pret to use my coffee subscription. There are numerous other coffee providers, free toilets, plenty of seating and a small selection of shops.

    There’s the Marylebone Thunderbolt on the left (my name for the service, it’s not the official name). Apparently this train is a British Rail Class 168 DMU train, but I had to look that up as I know nearly nothing about these matters. The trains though date from after privatisation, they were built from 1998 to service this route.

    The train was never really that busy and there were plenty of seats available. I got a table and access to a power supply which was handy. My ticket was checked by two different train guards, slightly unusual as I’ve recently rarely been asked to show my ticket at all. It’s a comfortable train, with spacious seats and it was clean throughout.

    And having safely arrived after a journey of just under 1 hour and 30 minutes. The railway station is located a ten-minute walk from the town centre, although there are buses for those who can’t be faffing about.

    And off the train goes to Birmingham.

    I was surprised that Warwick railway station wasn’t a little grander, it’s quite a minimal affair with limited facilities for customers.

    As for the service, it was on time, the train was clean, the staff were polite and the seats were comfortable. The fare cost £10, so I have no cause to be anything other than happy with the arrangement.

  • Chiltern Railways : Wembley Stadium to London Marylebone

    Chiltern Railways : Wembley Stadium to London Marylebone

    And another in my niche series of rail journeys around the UK, which are primarily for me to remember what rail companies I’ve travelled with, primarily with an interest in how they do things differently.

    Wembley Stadium isn’t the most exciting of railway stations and the history of railways around here is confused, as there was a different station with the same name at one point. This station opened in 1906 as Wembley Hill, was renamed Wembley Complex in 1978 and took its current name of Wembley Stadium in 1987. Incidentally, the Wembley Complex isn’t what I would consider to be a traditional way of naming British railway stations (and sounds more like a psychological conjecture) so I’m pleased that it was changed. The railway station is around a five minute walk away from Wembley Stadium, so the naming is appropriate.

    In the above photo, at the back is the White Horse Bridge, opened in 2008 and replacing the old concrete footbridge which was built for the British Empire Exhibition in 1925.

    The railway station is solely used by Chiltern Railways on their mainline to Birmingham and it’s a fast connection into the city centre as it gets into London Marylebone in only around ten minutes. I stood here and then realised that the train stops a little back way, with the platform being longer than it needs to be as occasionally they bring in longer trains when there are matches or events taking place at Wembley Stadium.

    The train was about a third full, not overly busy. I don’t know if there was a guard on board the train, but if there was, I didn’t see him or her at any stage of the journey. Legroom isn’t ideal and the interior of these trains probably need a more modern refit soon with a return to 2+2 seating rather than 3+2 which doesn’t really fit.

    And here we are ten minutes later in London Marylebone. There are usually two services which operate between Wembley Stadium and London Marylebone every hour, so the service is relatively frequent.

    As I’ve written about before, Marylebone is the smallest London mainline railway station, and also the last one to be completed.

    And the station’s frontage. Everything ran to time, the train was clean and the service was easy to get a ticket for as it just uses contactless at each end. Looping back to the start, there’s not a lot that Chiltern Railways seem to do differently of particular note, especially for a short journey such as this, but they’ve invested considerably in the infra-structure of this route over the last couple of decades. Only a few weeks ago a new franchise was given to the company to operate this route and this lasts until the end of 2027, but with the proviso that the contract might change with the introduction of Great British Railways in 2025ish.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    I’m used to the journey from Norwich to London Liverpool Street, but it’s rare for me to be getting the 07:00 train as that’s normally an expensive commuter service. Today though, it was £12.50 which I thought was reasonable all things considered (namely how expensive some other Greater Anglia services are which are of a much shorter destination).

    Norwich railway station wasn’t packed with people, but there were a few services about to leave, including the service to Liverpool Lime Street, so it wasn’t entirely quiet.

    Here’s the London thunderbolt that would hopefully get me into the city at 08:51. I boarded and had a carriage to myself, which was rather lovely. I then had a woman come up to me and she said that I looked strong (can’t fault her logic there) and could I open her bottle of water for her. This sort of scenario isn’t ideal, as if I can’t open it then I look ridiculous. Fortunately, I gave the impression of huge strength since I opened the bottle immediately. That’s a decent start to a journey.

    What wasn’t a decent start was seeing that the train was marked as delayed, with no announcements made about it. I’m not sure what caused this, as the signs soon lost their delayed status and the train was ready to rock and roll at 07:00 as expected. The announcements made by the staff were all friendly and informative, with a guard checking tickets. This process didn’t exactly take him long and to my slight disappointment (as I like watching drama unfold) everyone seemed to have a valid ticket.

    Here’s the packed carriage. I also managed to sit at the only block of seats on the train that didn’t have working power, so had to move to the seats opposite. This wasn’t the only technical problem on board, as the shutter at the cafe had broken and jammed, so the staff had to walk up and down the train with the trolley. The service though arrived into London on time, so no complaints there. It didn’t get much busier either, just a handful of people on the entire train.

    This is London Liverpool Street at commuter time, but on a morning between Christmas and New Year’s Day, which is perhaps never going to be packed with hordes of travellers. Nonetheless, it was still quieter than I expected.

    And outside London Liverpool Street station, with a calmness in the air.

  • British Airways – Extension of Reduced Tier Points Thresholds

    British Airways – Extension of Reduced Tier Points Thresholds

    A little bit of a niche post, but I’m pleased to see that British Airways have extended the reduced tier point requirement from June 2022 until the end of December 2022. That will make it considerably easier for me to maintain silver status and potentially gain gold status.

    If I might get political just briefly, there’s a wider point here though about rail. Whilst British Airways are improving facilities, offering enhanced loyalty schemes and comfortable experiences, the even more uncomfortable rail network seems to be falling apart. I’m not able to get any railcard to reduce the fares, which are being increased by the highest amount in a decade, let alone any kind of comparable loyalty scheme. I very rarely take domestic flights as they’re something of an environmental disaster, but with their fares falling due to cuts in Air Passenger Duty, it’s making an already uncompetitive rail network slip further behind.

    Anyway, politics aside, the text of the e-mail announcement from British Airways is below:

    “We couldn’t have made it through this year without you. You make us fly (literally), so we wanted to say thank you for your loyalty and support with some good news.

    We’ve been in touch previously to let you know about the steps we have taken to protect your status and well-earned benefits. For example, we have automatically renewed the Tier status of Members who were not able to do so through flying, and reduced the Tier Point thresholds by 25% until June 2022.

    We’re now taking this one step further and extending the 25% reduced Tier Point thresholds until December 2022. This means, it will be much easier to retain your current status for one more year, or upgrade to the next Tier, and enjoy the benefits you deserve.

    You can find out more about all the ways we are supporting you and your membership at ba.com.

    With our best wishes for the festive season and the New Year,

    Your Executive Club Team”

  • PKP Intercity : Warsaw to Częstochowa

    PKP Intercity : Warsaw to Częstochowa

    Today’s little adventure began at Warszawa Centralna, the city’s main railway station. The station was built in the 1970s and is an impressive and open structure, replacing the remains of the Warszawa Główna railway station which was nearly entirely lost during the Second World War.

    There are plenty of screens indicating the platform numbers and there are escalators down to the tracks.

    I like these screens, they make it relatively easy to know where to stand on the platform to board the train. I fail to understand why the British railway network has never managed to implement this, I don’t really understand why this is so complex. I know that it has been done in a few railway stations, but generally it’s a stand and hope you’re in the right place policy for those catching a train.

    That meant I was departing from Platform 3, Track 4 and Sector 2. I had a reserved seat which was carriage 12 and seat number 36, so I felt that I had all the information that I needed.

    The platforms are long, this is only about half its length.

    I’m always pleased to see confirmation on the signage that I’m at the right platform and at the right railway station. My service was the train departing at 10:10 and arriving into Częstochowa at 12:55, a journey time of two hours and 45 minutes.

    The train isn’t one of the more modern set-ups, here it is arriving into the railway station. They’re also not the easiest to get on and off, there’s quite a step to get into it and so it isn’t ideal for those with limited mobility to access without assistance.

    This meant that it was a carriage train, something I’m not hugely keen on. There has been a move towards open carriages and I prefer that to these eight person compartments.

    There were three of us in this compartment for most of the journey, so plenty of space as it can seat up to eight people. There were eight or so stops along the route, with everything running to clockwork in terms of the timing. I’d add that I took this photo when one of the passengers left the compartment, we weren’t all sitting on the same side. I didn’t need power for electrical devices, but another one of the passengers did and was unable to find it in this area, although she disappeared with her phone charger for some time and so I imagine there’s a power point somewhere.

    Also, it looks from the photo that it’s possible to see across the tops of the compartment, but that’s just the mirror and it is sealed quite tightly other than for the door. There’s a handy metal bar running along the base of the seats which is useful for putting feet on, saving passengers doing that annoying thing of putting their feet on the seats. The seats were adequate and were cushioned, but I didn’t think that they were as comfortable as those on most modern British trains.

    The corridor down the side of the train and a refreshments trolley did work its way up and down. The conductor was friendly when checking my ticket, although I proffered my passport and he said that he didn’t need it, although I thought they were checking them. He didn’t speak any English, but my very limited Polish is enough to understand “ticket please” and “can you make the screen larger?”, but that was the limit of the verbal interchange.

    And safely into Częstochowa railway station, which isn’t entirely obvious as I think that it looks like a shopping centre, but the service was on time and everything was smooth and efficient. The journey cost £9.80 (and I booked that at https://mt.rozklad-pkp.pl/en which is the official web-site of the rail company), which I thought was entirely reasonable given the distance travelled.