Rail History of Warsaw
The first railway opened in Warsaw in 1845 (the Warsaw-Vienna Railway). In the next years, the following railways were opened:
- Warsaw-Saint Petersburg, in 1862, through Białystok and Vilnius – broad gauge railway,
- Warsaw-Moscow, in 1867 – through Terespol, thus called “Warsaw-Terespol Railway” – broad gauge,
- Ring Railway (Kolej Obwodowa), in 1876, connected the Warsaw-Vienna and Warsaw-Terespol Railways,
- Vistula Riverside Railway (Kolej Nadwiślańska), in 1877 - Mława-Warsaw-Lublin-Kovel – broad gauge,
- Warsaw-Kalisz, in 1902 – Warsaw-Sochaczew-Łódź-Kalisz - broad gauge railway.
On these railways, stations were built: Vienna St. (Dworzec Warszawsko-Wiedeński, 1845), Saint Petersburg St. (Dworzec Petersburski, 1863), Terespol St. (Dworzec Terespolski), Vistula St. (Dworzec Nadwiślański, 1878), Kalisz St. (Dworzec Kaliski, 1902). The Vienna St. and Terespolski St. survived World War I, the other stations were pulled down by Russians in 1915, but only the Kaliski St. was not rebuilt after the war. During the war and after that, the broad gauge railways were converted into those of normal gauge. But right up until 1933, the only line connecting both Vistula parts was the Ring Railway, with the bridge near today’s Gdański Bridge. In 1933, the connection between the Main Station (former Vienna St.) and the Terespol St. was built: as it ran through the densely built-up city center, it was built in a tunnel. This tunnel along with a bridge is called Średnicowy (Cross-City Tunnel) and has approximately 2.3 kilometres (1.4 mi). In 1934, there was built the last railway, existing till now – to Radom and then to Kraków.
There are 2 railway bridges in Warsaw:
- along the Gdański bridge – former Ring Railway Bridge (1875), serves mainly freight trains and some of passenger trains,
- Średnicowy (1933) – serves mainly passenger trains.
Read more about this topic: History Of Rail Transport In Poland
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