New train line in Krakow - but what was there before?

[gingerheid]

I have a slightly strange question... I've just made a visit to Krakow (my most poorly planned short break; for dental work, because life is now sufficiently crazy that this still makes sense even at short notice!).

I arrived by plane and stayed in Wieliczka, so did many trips on the SKA1 line, where quite a lot of things seem to be new (perhaps most of the stations within Krakow are new or rebuilt?)

I was very impressed by the new Krakow Glowny station, the other stations that seemed to be new, the new bridges across the river, and the express tram lines and underground stations.

It's quite easy to find out what has been done that is new... but I was wondering; what was there before? What was the purpose of the project(s)? What has improved? I have the European Train Timetable from 2015, but it seems that this was while the works were underway.

I can see that the Wieliczka service used to be hourly (now half hourly). What else has changed?

 

[stuu]

I have a slightly strange question... I've just made a visit to Krakow (my most poorly planned short break; for dental work, because life is now sufficiently crazy that this still makes sense even at short notice!).

I arrived by plane and stayed in Wieliczka, so did many trips on the SKA1 line, where quite a lot of things seem to be new (perhaps most of the stations within Krakow are new or rebuilt?)

I was very impressed by the new Krakow Glowny station, the other stations that seemed to be new, the new bridges across the river, and the express tram lines and underground stations.

It's quite easy to find out what has been done that is new... but I was wondering; what was there before? What was the purpose of the project(s)? What has improved? I have the European Train Timetable from 2015, but it seems that this was while the works were underway.

I can see that the Wieliczka service used to be hourly (now half hourly). What else has changed?

The line east/south from Krakow Glowny has been quadrupled, and the direct, grade separated links towards Zakopane have been added. As for the purpose, presumably capacity to run many more trains. There has been a lot of work to expand the route west of Krakow as well, I assume there will be some sort of s-bahn type service in the future, but I don't know that

 

[gingerheid]

Thanks!

It's amazing what actually caring about public transport rather than paying it lipservice while being short termist can actually achieve!

The SKA1 line felt pretty busy at all times of day , so at the very least it feels like the investment will have been a commercial success, or perhaps that there is still room for additional services to run.

 

[gravitystorm]

but I was wondering; what was there before

The railway from Kraków Głowny south across the river was a two-track railway on a high embankment. It was upgraded over about 5-ish years to become a quad-track railway on viaducts and retaining walls on the same alignment and same footprint - while keeping at least one line open throughout! First, the eastern of the two original tracks was removed, and this provided enough space to construct the new outer slow line. When that was finished, the remaining original line was removed and replaced with the three new lines (two inner and the western outer). You can see evidence of the process on the new bridges across the river - the eastern bridge is a single-track deck, since it was constructed first while the original twin-track bridge was still in use. When the original bridge was removed, there was then space to build the central twin-track and the western bridge (which carries the fourth track, and a pedestrian and cycle path). I found it very impressive how they managed to do such a big upgrade with very few total closures (I lived two streets away while this project was ongoing, the piling for the bridges shook our apartment for months!).

What was the purpose of the project(s)? What has improved?

It's part of a European TEN-T upgrade of the mainline corridor from Katowice, through Kraków, and onwards towards Rzeszów. Given the state of some stretches, this involved pretty much a rebuild - digging out the track bed and starting again! Within Kraków itself, the main goal was to quad-track the core, to separate fast and slow traffic, all the way from Kraków Mydlniki (near the airport) through Kraków Płaszów south of the river. Several stations were rebuilt (e.g. Bronowice got high level platforms on the grade-separated airport line) or entirely new (e.g. Grzegórzki, which could be added on the new slow lines).

I found Kraków Zabłocie particularly interesting. The grade separated flyovers (to avoid Zakopane trains reversing at Płaszów) had been built a few years before, but the planners were smart enough to arrange the flyover support pillars to leave space for the (then only potential) future quad-tracking. Additionally, when Zabłocie station was rebuilt a few years earlier as a twin-track station with outer platforms, the roof and outer side walls were designed to be detatchable and extendable if the (again, then only potential) future quad-tracking took place, and that's exactly what happened. You can see the original attachment points for the outer walls, along with the joints in the roof, in this photo. The train is on the new outer slow lines, and before the roof was extended, the walls were down the back of the then single-faced platform which served the old twin / new inner fast tracks.

All in all some really interesting lessons in what can be achieved in a busy urban environment, without needing expensive tunnels, long closures, or land take. Also great lessons about integrated planning, where clearly some projects were carefully designed to make future upgrades cheaper and easier, rather than every project being designed, costed and built in isolation.

 

[gingerheid]

Thanks - that's really interesting!
And to do it without serious disruption is even more impressive.

 

[AdamWW]

I found Kraków Zabłocie particularly interesting. The grade separated flyovers (to avoid Zakopane trains reversing at Płaszów)

That was part of the fun though!

Watching the run-around being done by just the driver (and very efficiently too) with nobody else on the ground to assist...