International Railroad Discussion > Steam in regular service in Poland

Report from a friend of a visit last week showed regular service standard gauge steam in Poland as follows:

Wolsztyn - Leszno: two round trips Monday through Friday.
Wolsztyn - Poznan: two round trips Saturday only

These are regular service trains used by the locals.  For example, the first round trip from Wolsztyn to Leszno leaves at 6:05am every weekday and is basically a commuter service to Leszno.

There are three steamers assigned to the roundhouse in Wolsztyn protecting these servces, two 2-6-2s and a 2-8-2, all engines with tenders.  One of the 2-6-2s is now undergoing an overhaul.

Use of steam was said to be intended to continue at least through 2022.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/21 07:00 by LTCerny.

Are the railroads gov't owned?

I'm guessing the answer is basiclly yes, but with private opeators of some serices.  Someone else may have a better answer

And  as I recall there is a government subsidy for steam operations reviewed on an annual basis. Photos are from 2018.

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I've logged about 2000 miles at the throttle of those engines and others. Depending on the distance between stations you run 100kmph (60mph) and more.  The lines have been recently rebuilt.   Those OL49 2-6-2 are great engines.  

tomstp Wrote:
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> Are the railroads gov't owned?

Yes, the rail network (infrastructure) as well as the incumbent train operator, both subsidiaries of PKP (Polish Railways), are owned by the federal government of Poland. There are a number of other operators, most of which operate local and regional services and are owned by the various Voivodeships (essentially, federal states). There are also a handful of privately-operated intercity services run by the Czech companies Leo Express and Regiojet. Up till now, these have mostly been international services to/from the Czech Republic, but Regiojet has recently begun an offensive in the Polish domestic market. Time will tell whether this takes off. Then there is the freight market, which is served by several private operating companies in competetition with PKP. All of these operators purchase train paths on the state-owned PKP network.

Thanks.