Warsaw and its trains

[StephenHunter]

Just come back from a trip to Warsaw. What's the reason for having Centralna and Śródmieście separated like that, when it would be more logical to have them all together?

 

[dutchflyer]

Dzien dobry. Just back from there too-last week half a day going from Wroclaw to Vilnius/LIT (by overnight bus from the west station).
Was there first time in ´75-communist, visum needed, change real money for printed notes etc. And at that time this east-west train tunnel had just been opened. That stalin´s revenge-the skyscraper, by far the only high building all around.All trains by PKP, the giant state institution.
There has always been a distinct separation between OSobny= persons trains and Poszpiesny=fast (now IC), As you may have noted-but Srodm is under giant renovation with many trains diverted, these use Srodm and Centralna there. BTW: this is the only station named Centralna in all of PL, all other main stations are named Glowny=main. (HBF in german). Except for some stops in the Gdansk area-where the OS are 3d rail and thus separate anyway, this is unique in PL.
You will not want to know how much passenger nrs have declined in PL on PKP-even though there is an upward trend again now. The nrs at that time-plus the nr of trains and the need for space for all services then-selling tickets, checks etc. were so much higher that it could not be provided in 1 stop-plus that the general view at that time was that demand would ever be rising in the glorious optimism of people´s republic. Also remember quite well that many Posp. and INTernat. trains needing more time to stand at stops did not even serve it, but the northern Gdanska. And there was not a sign of metro or other fast mass transit then at all. Those few pax needing to change from OS to Posp. could do that easily at either east or west.
I think there is even a wiki-item on this, but only in Polish.
Very soon after PKP split up into a basically commercial IC-branch and subsidised local PolRegio branch, many regions split off, as did the one here into Koleje (=railways) Mazowieckie. But then, as seems usual in PL on that, a struggle came between city and region on payments and on the quite busy inner-city sections SKM started to offer additional service to strenghten- named SKM and in red+yellow livery.
People from 70-any, not just EU, enjoy free travel in Warszawa, also on these local trains. Just show ID when there is the sparse check. Also all normal urban tickets are valid.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Just come back from a trip to Warsaw. What's the reason for having Centralna and Śródmieście separated like that, when it would be more logical to have them all together?

The simple answer is that the two are from different eras. Śródmieście was from the 60s, and meant to service local traffic using the Cross-City line. On the other hand, the decision to build Centralna didn't come until 1972, and there is a lot of logic in separating long distance passengers from local/regional passengers. As it stands, the two sets of traffic aren't interfering with each other, while it might have been difficult to build Centralna with an additional three platforms as it would also have required digging up Aleje Jerozolimskie. With this solution, the long distance trains and local trains aren't interfering with each other, and the layout also allows the WKD to operate independently too.

The two stations are connected anyway, so it's not much of an issue in practice. The problem is rather with the lack of an underground connection from Śródmieście to the metro, because it would be very helpful in winter to have direct underground access between the two, especially as the access to Metro Centrum is really quite unpleasant in winter.

There really should be direct underground links from Złote Tarasy through to the shopping passage next to Centrum. In fact, the Centrum station is really unfinished, and the current exits are only theoretically temporary in nature. The entire area was supposed to be developed, but the current concept will have a link from Śródmieście to the "frying pan" outside Centrum due to lack of agreement/interest from the city.

Still, one of the major issues in Warsaw is the way that the metro is so far away from Centralna. There really should be two connectors, one from Zlote Tarasy to Rondo ONZ, and another one from Centralna to Centrum.

 

[Panceltic]

As others said, Śródmieście is for local and regional trains and Centralna is for intercity. However, some local and regional trains use Centralna as well (which makes them "fast" through the central section because the track layout means they skip Ochota, Powiśle and Stadion stations).

Recently, Główna (the former main station) has been reopened as well, as a terminus, serving both local/regional and intercity traffic.

 

[StephenHunter]

Recently, Główna (the former main station) has been reopened as well, as a terminus, serving both local/regional and intercity traffic.

That's right - it's next door to the railway museum.