European Railroad Discussion > PKP Cargo speeds

I saw an article about delays to "Silk Road" (China to Europe) trains that occur at border crossings in Poland that the article says were sluggish and lacked capacity. That led me to look up some videos of PKP Cargo trains out of curiosity. There are plenty of Polish railfans putting videos out so it was easy to see a couple dozen trains taken in the last week. What surprised me from watching them, compared to freight elsewhere in Europe, is how slow everything was moving. (I'm not saying that in reference to the border crossings) Many trains were going what seemed like only 30kph. At the higher end, it seemed like the fastest were going 65 or possibly 80kph. But many were slower than that. These videos were only double track, eletrified mainlines. I'm sure some locations could have grades or curves as a factor but even guessing at that it seemed like things were moving much slower that elsewhere in Europe. Another thing that stuck out was how nearly every train was powered by engines that were 30-50 years old (ET22, M62, and other models.) Just wondering if anyone knows how the network compares to Germany, France, or elsewhere.

inCHI Wrote:
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> I saw an article about delays to "Silk Road"
> (China to Europe) trains that occur at border
> crossings in Poland that the article says were
> sluggish and lacked capacity. That led me to look
> up some videos of PKP Cargo trains out of
> curiosity. There are plenty of Polish railfans
> putting videos out so it was easy to see a couple
> dozen trains taken in the last week. What
> surprised me from watching them, compared to
> freight elsewhere in Europe, is how slow
> everything was moving. (I'm not saying that in
> reference to the border crossings) Many trains
> were going what seemed like only 30kph. At the
> higher end, it seemed like the fastest were going
> 65 or possibly 80kph. But many were slower than
> that. These videos were only double track,
> eletrified mainlines. I'm sure some locations
> could have grades or curves as a factor but even
> guessing at that it seemed like things were moving
> much slower that elsewhere in Europe. Another
> thing that stuck out was how nearly every train
> was powered by engines that were 30-50 years old
> (ET22, M62, and other models.) Just wondering if
> anyone knows how the network compares to Germany,
> France, or elsewhere.


Lots of possible reasons for delays at the Polish border. Don't forget that the containers have to be transferred from 1520mm gauge flatcars to 1435mm gauge flatcars.
I haven't heard of any government grants to expand the primary facility. There is only one usable crossing, The one at Terespol.