I won’t linger too much on this post as I’ve written about public transport in Warsaw so many times before. However, this is the train to the city centre and I’ll note here that a 24 hour public transport ticket is under £3. A single underground journey in Zone 1 in London is the same price.
The train stopped for a few minutes at Warszawa Zachodnia railway station, which is all new and shiny. This is moderately annoying as I realised that the Ibis Budget I usually stay at had suddenly become available and if I had realised earlier, I would have switched to this one. But, it meant I instead got to see more of Warsaw at night and there are worse things.
Getting off at Warszawa Centralna railway station.
I needed to change from a train to a night bus and there’s the Palace of Culture and Science. I sent a photo of this to my friend Liam who asked me why it was purple. Unfortunately, no-one seems to know, but it looks rather lovely at night and it is certainly a bold choice for Stalinist architecture, which is not usually known for its playful approach to mood lighting.
On the night bus.
It was quite busy and we sat in the dark for a while which I think was to add anticipation before we departed. Public transport often lacks theatricality, so perhaps Warsaw is addressing this with a brief blackout sequence. Either that or the driver hadn’t turned the lights on yet, but I prefer the more dramatic interpretation.
Let there be light. And off we went, all suddenly illuminated and reassured that the bus had not, in fact, been designed by people who believed passengers should travel by instinct alone.
And safely at the hotel. Public transport in Warsaw really is very easy, it’s cheap, frequent and well signed. Their trams and buses are shown live on Google Maps which helps if anything is delayed and, I know I say this frequently, but no-one was playing music or had their feet on the seats. This is a proper culture. A civilisation can be judged in many ways, but “can I sit on public transport without listening to someone else’s phone or inspecting their shoes on the upholstery?” seems as good a measure as any.