European Railroad Discussion > Poland, part 5. Poznan Station

Poznan is a large city in west-central Poland.  It's half way between Berlin and Warsaw, so it's on an international main line east-west, and there are many cities in all directions in Poland.  Since many people travel by train, the station was modern, enormous, and really busy.  

1) Arriving in the outskirts of Poznan

2) Detraining, this is the train I rode in on from Swinousjie.  Might have been a 5 or 6 hour ride?  No damage to the nose of that EMU from fallen trees!  

3) Poznan station interior.  Big, glitzy, modern, and highly functional.  (Photo doesn't show how big the crowds and concourses were.  There was a whole restaurant level up on the 3rd floor.)

Photos taken September, 2019.  



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/20 22:20 by gobbl3gook.

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4) Another view of the interior.  Easy-to-read trainboards.  They weren't changing from one message to another, or one language to another.  Font was big.  They were overhead, so a lot of people could look at them all at once.  

5) Trams on the road bridge over the railway tracks (It was also under the flight path for the Poznan airport, so there was a lot to look at.  I'm not a planespotter, but always appreciate a big alumnum/composite belly overhead)

6) Map of the station.  Always take photos of train schedules, railway system maps, and station maps.  It might be useful 5 minutes or 30 minutes later when you need to make a decision on the fly, or correct a swrong turn.  And always useful to post to the internet later, as this info is very hard to come by.  

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7) Train schedule.  These are the daily departures (some may be duplicates, some weekday or weekend only).  But, as you can see that is a lot of trains.  
1.1 million people in the metro area.  So about the same size as the Salt Lake City metro area.  (But, with many more metro areas within a 5 hour train ride than Salt Lake has... )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poznań
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_City

Or, half the size of Columbus, OH.  How many local/regional/intercity trains does Columbus have? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus,_Ohio

8) I was getting on the train that would arrive in Wolsztyn at 18:28

9) Other passengers appeared to be 95% high school students.  The train was a half hour late.  A lot of trains were late that day.  I periodically heard on the PA system (must have been in English and Polish,) that train XYZ from Sczscien was running late.  I had a pretty good idea as to why that particular train was delayed...  

Seems that mass transport of high school kids on local/regional trains is a healthy thing for society -- people in towns and villages outside the metro area can send their kids to nice high schools in the city.  It keeps rural towns going.  And kids are autonomous in movement -- can take whichever train home they like, don't need to rely on a school bus or a drivers license.  And they live in dense little villages, so can socialize with many people easily.  Unlike me, growing up in suburban St. Paul, MN where the only transport game in town was a school bus or a car...  

Note, also, that of all these schoolkids, each one of the parents was doing something else.  Not a single parent was parked outside a high school in a minivan...  

Next series, train 77558 to Wolzstyn.  

Photos taken Sept, 2019.  

Comments, questions, observations?  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/20 13:18 by gobbl3gook.

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I went through Poznan a few years ago. What seemed strange to me was that it was almost as if there were two stations either side of the taxi rank, something your station map photo shows well. Not a usual British style. 

Poznan's trams used to, and may still have one of the relatively rare grand union crossings in which lines cross at right angles and all possible routings are both possible and taken, ie North to South, East and West, South to East and West and East to West. Requires six tram lines.

Crickiter -- verey interesting.  

I found a Poznan tram map.  Looks like the "Most Teatrainy" junction comes close.  https://goo.gl/maps/D5VxmaCKiKQpFPZy6  But currently only has 2 lines extending to the west.  It would need a line from the west to the south to complete the Grand Union.  
https://mapa-metro.com/mapas/Poznan/fast-tram-poznam-map.jpg

Edit -- also 
* Rondo Starolika https://goo.gl/maps/entKjbdkD64KKzJY8
* Kornika https://goo.gl/maps/689WMhWnmbrFuKBZA
on the east side come close.  Each has 3 of the 4 corners in use.  
I imagine any of those junctions would be fun places to watch the action...   

I've never heard the term before, but I like it!  I saw a junction like this in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2017.  And some of the lines were dual gauge, no less...  (Edit, I took a quick look at Sofia tram maps, couldn't find one.  So it must have been another type of remarkably busy and complex interchange I saw).  

Also, you can see the lines on OpenRailwayMap.org
https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?lang=null&lat=52.40574400925685&lon=16.91298007965088&zoom=15&style=standard

(Poznan is half way between Berlin and Warsaw)

I wish I had time to properly explore every place I passed through.  But alas, if I did that I wouldn't cover very much ground...  

Ted in UT

Also -- look at this cool page.  Tram maps for many cities in Europe!  
http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/euromet.htm



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/20 22:28 by gobbl3gook.

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Thank you again for the photos and the commentary on your trip. Another station I have now seen via your images, and which I would have experienced myself this spring had not the planned trip I was to be on been cancelled due to the novel coronavirus. My destination was to have been Wolsztyn as well, so I'm looking forward to the rest of your, trip and your photos from there, too. Many thanks again.

MC
Muskegon, Michigan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/20 21:12 by ironmtn.

Here's the exterior of the station. The glass building to the left is the current station and shopping mall. You can see the original stration buiding, now used as something else I can't recall to the right. Lots of trams to phot in Poznan. 

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Extremely interesting photos and commentary. I am always impressed by European train stations (if only we had facilities like them). My personal experiences in European stations has been in western Europe, so I enjoy scenes from other parts of the continent.

tevillo wrote
(if only we had facilities like them)

Just a reminder, folks, the way to get train service back in the US is through political support.  

Most metro areas now have some sort of light rail.  And many have some level of intercity service, beyond long-distance passenger trains.  

Each new rail line takes years, or a decade, to develop.  There are often delays and cutbacks.  

It probably only takes a modest amount of political support to grease the skids on these long, cumbersome planning and design projects.  

You and your peers can have letter-writing parties once every month, every quarter.  And write letters of support for local Light Rail, Heavy Rail projects.  You can write to the project manager, to the city, county and state officials.  You can write letters to the editor.  

This is how things get moving in the USA, it's how most post-WWII rail projects have happened.  

For instance, if there was even a regular background chatter of getting frequent rail service between Eugene-Portland-Olympia-Seattle-Bellingham 20 years ago, we could have hourly train service now.  

15 years ago there was a plan to have more frequent service on the Capitol Corridor from Sacramento to San Jose, it hasn't happened...  But if folks would have been supporting it, it could have happened.  

Each of us is one voice, we all have friends, we can make things happen.  

My $0.02, with 25 years experience of community organizing for bicycling advocacy.  

Ted in UT



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/20 13:26 by gobbl3gook.

Another take-home message from my European travels -- there is relatively little "HSR" in Europe.  Sure, Italy, France, Germany have glitze trains at 200 kmh.  But the workhorse trains of all countries are the local and regional trains.  Ordinary trains plodding along at 100 - 150 kmh, with grade grossings, no special streamlining, no special facilities.  And generally very reasonable fares.  

But they have very frequent rail service.  Every half hour, hour, every two hours, that sort of thing.  

And this is what makes it really work for the masses.  

I get peeved when I see the Cascade Corridor advocates talking about the need for High Speed Rail in Cascadia.  Without even a cursory mention of High Frequency Rail.  

Nope, that's not what most people need or want.  Tickets would be 2 or 3x current ticket prices, and you'd only shave off maybe 1/2 hour Portland to Eugene.  

What American strings of metro areas need now is actual frequent, reliable train service, like these trains I ride around on in Europe.  I never take fast trains -- partly because I have a bicycle, and they're not allowed.  Partly because it costs more.  Partly because I'm not really keen on associating with the business class crowd.  And partly because I like the sensory experience of a slow train better.  

With Millenial kids now in their 30s, more and more Americans have grown up in the iPhone age, they didn't get drivers licenses in high school, and they don't want to be suburban adults, driving their cars everywhere.  And getting decent intercity trains is a key way to support this group in their lifestyles.  (I realize "Chinatown busses" are also filling this niche, and have been steadily growing for 10 years.  But I think the sensory experience of the train is still preferred by many).  

Ted in UT

gobbl3gook Wrote:
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> Another take-home message from my European travels
> -- there is relatively little "HSR" in Europe.
>  Sure, Italy, France, Germany have glitze trains
> at 200 kmh.  But the workhorse trains of all
> countries are the local and regional trains.
>  Ordinary trains plodding along at 100 - 150 kmh,
> with grade grossings, no special streamlining, no
> special facilities.  

I think what you mean is there's relatively little HSR in Central Europe, virtually all western European countries have high speed rail service, you omit Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria from your list. All have built new lines, indeed Spain has the largest high speed network outside China with over 2000 miles of track. In keeping passengers out of airplanes high speed rail is can cement the rest of the passenger network, although it is certainly true that in some countries the conventional network had suffered because funds have flowed to the high speed lines. But if a country like Germany didn't have fast trains connecting its major centres using a mix of conventional and new build high speed lines fewer passengers would use the network, they would fly or use their cars instead, with a knock on effect on the lesser services.

I was in the new Poznań station a few years ago and it is an astonishing improvement over the old one.  One endearing feature of the old one, though, was that it relied on locomotive-supplied steam for heat in winter.  At least for the winter 1993-1994 Tkt48-143, part of the Wolsztyn fleet, had that assignment. I'm not aware of other stations requiring a locomotive, but several loco facilities did, including Gniezno with Ty2 331 and Ty2-1086 at Zbaszynek.

Gordon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/20 16:40 by gbmott.

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86285 -- I stand corrected.  

Though I think I could add that the HSR networks rely of frequent service slow speed networks as feeder systems.  (Something the US Fresno to Barstow HSR line won't have), and, that the local networks probably support far more total passenger-miles-traveled than the fast lines.  

I've only traveled on HSR twice -- Frankfurt Germany to Frieburg.  And Bologna to Rome.  They were nice rides, but not nearly as interesting as the slow trains.  

Thanks for the clarification.  

Gordon  -- interesting to learn if steam heat in the recent past.  

I was a free agent in 1993, I wish I would have started my European adventures then, instead of 5 years ago.  Thanks for the commentary. 

Ted in UT



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/20 16:26 by gobbl3gook.

Thanks for your comment on Poznan trams. I'll admit to being extremely hung over when I travelled through Poznan, so my view out of the window may not have done it justice.

gobbl3gook Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Though I think I could add that the HSR networks
> rely of frequent service slow speed networks as
> feeder systems.  (Something the US Fresno to
> Barstow HSR line won't have), and, that the local
> networks probably support far more total
> passenger-miles-traveled than the fast lines.  
>
> Ted in UT

There I agree with you entirely, the two types of rail network are interdependent, you need both to thrive. Although that's in a pre-Covid 19 world, what the medium and long term impact of the pandemic on travel will be is anyone's guess

gbmott -- very interesting photos!  

Like Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel.  

Maybe they could have parked one of those under the new Poznan Station... 

Ted in UT