Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

Chorzów Chorzów ( ; ; german: link=no, Königshütte ; szl, Chorzōw) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population ...

Upper Silesian Coal Basin The Upper Silesian Coal Basin ( pl, Górnośląskie Zagłębie Węglowe, GZW, cs, Hornoslezská uhelná pánev) is a coal basin in Silesia, in Poland and the Czech Republic.Kalety and Herby Nowe. In Herby , the Coal Trunk-Line proper begins. The connection Chorzów Batory – Kalety had been built before the 1920s, by the Germans, as these lands had belonged to Germany until 1921. Then, in 1926 a Kalety – Herby Nowe – Wieluń – Kępno line was constructed, thanks to which Upper Silesia and

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...

got a direct connection, without the necessity of using the then-German junction at Kreuzburg (Kluczbork). From Herby , crossing the strategic junctions of Chorzew Siemkowice and Zduńska Wola Karsznice, the Coal Trunk-Line reaches Inowrocław. From there it goes to

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

, which had already been connected to

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

and Gdynia (via Laskowice and Tczew), but the creation of

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...

made it difficult to keep regular Polish freight movement in the interbellum. Thus, another part of the Coal Trunk-Line between Bydgoszcz and Gdynia was constructed in the early 1930s, via

Wierzchucin Wierzchucin is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Cekcyn, within Tuchola County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Cekcyn, east of Tuchola Tuchola (german: Tuchel; ...

and

Kościerzyna Kościerzyna ( Kashubian and Pomeranian: ''Kòscérzëna''; formerly german: Berent, ) is a town in Kashubia in Gdańsk Pomerania region, northern Poland, with some 24,000 inhabitants. It has been the capital of Kościerzyna County in Pomerania ...

and the sparsely populated forests and hills of Kashubia. The Coal Trunk-Line ends in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

port of Gdynia, after crossing all of Poland from south to north (appr. 550 kilometers).

History

Beginnings and interwar period

In 1921–1922 the borders of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

were finally established. Upper Silesia was divided (see:

Silesian Uprisings The Silesian Uprisings (german: Aufstände in Oberschlesien, Polenaufstände, links=no; pl, Powstania śląskie, links=no) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic ...

) and the boundary left in German hands several crucial junctions, including Kluczbork (Kreuzburg) and

Fosowskie Fosowskie (german: Vossowska, 1936-45: ''Vosswalde''), also called ''Wosowska'' between 1945 and 1948, is a district of the southern Polish town of Kolonowskie, Strzelce County, Opole Voivodeship, located at the Mała Panew river. History Foso ...

(Vossowska). Without these centers, rail communication between Polish Silesia and the Baltic Sea was virtually impossible. As coal was one of the main Polish exports, and transit through Germany was not allowed (due to the German–Polish customs war in the late 1920s and early 1930s), construction of the new line was necessary. On 17 February 1928 the President of Poland

Ignacy Mościcki Ignacy Mościcki (; 1 December 18672 October 1946) was a Polish chemist and politician who was the country's president from 1926 to 1939. He was the longest serving president in Polish history. Mościcki was the President of Poland when Germany ...

signed a bill which ordered the construction of the 255-kilometer line Herby – Inowrocław. For unknown reasons, the important industrial center of

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...

, located just a few kilometers east of the route, was not included in it. Instead, the Coal Trunk-Line crossed the main East-West route (

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

– Łódź –

Ostrów Wielkopolski Ostrów Wielkopolski () (often abbreviated ''Ostrów Wlkp.'', formerly called simply ''Ostrów'', german: Ostrowo, Latin: ''Ostrovia'') is a city in west-central Poland with 70,982 inhabitants (2021), situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship; ...

– Poznań) in the vicinity of the town of

Zduńska Wola Zduńska Wola is a city in central Poland with 40,730 inhabitants (2021). It is the seat of Zduńska Wola County in the Łódź Voivodeship. The city was once one of the largest cloth, linen and cotton weaving centres in Poland and is the birthp ...

. As a result, a huge nexus was built in Zduńska Wola-Karsznice, which until today is one of the most important junctions of the whole country. Also, a new settlement was built there, with several condominiums for rail workers and their families. Apart from the line itself, numerous stations along the way were built. Most of them resemble traditional Polish manor houses, with very interesting architecture. The Herby – Karsznice connection was completed by 1930, soon afterwards the route reached Inowrocław. As the line between Inowrocław and Bydgoszcz already existed, the next step was the construction of the last part – from Bydgoszcz to Gdynia, through the Polish Corridor, without entering the territory of the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...

. The whole Coal Trunk-Line was completed by 1933, and in 1939 it was connected with

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ; german: Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; la, Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (admin ...

, due to the Chorzew Siemkowice – Częstochowa route, which was finished on 23 April 1939. Also, on the same day, the second track was completed on the sector between Zduńska Wola Karsznice and Chorzew Siemkowice. Among the guests, invited for a celebration of the opening of the Częstochowa – Siemkowice connection, were the Polish minister of transportation, Juliusz Ulrich and the minister of public works of France,

Anatole de Monzie Anatole de Monzie (22 November 1876, Bazas, Gironde – 11 January 1947, Paris) was a French administrator, encyclopaedist ('' Encyclopédie française''), political figure and scholar. His father was a tax collector in Bazas, Gironde whe ...

. Between the wars, long-distance passenger trains still used the Bydgoszcz – Danzig – Gdynia connection, crossing the territory of the Free City of Danzig.

Second World War and afterwards

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

German occupiers did not regard the Coal Trunk-Line as a strategic one. For them, the West – East routes were most important, along which military transports were carried. Besides, since the pre-1939 borders were voided, part of the line between Bydgoszcz and Gdynia was replaced by the Bydgoszcz – Tczew – Danzig – Gdynia connection. In spite of this, in the early 1940s, the Germans laid a second track on the routes Herby – Siemkowice (55 km) and Karsznice – Inowrocław (156 km). After the war, the Coal Trunk-Line again gained importance. Transports of Silesian coal to Gdansk and Gdynia were crucial for the Polish economy, so by 1966 electrification of the whole route was completed. However, the original connection Bydgoszcz – Kościerzyna – Gdynia was abandoned by freight trains which go on the route Bydgoszcz – Tczew – Gdansk – Gdynia, and today is used only by local traffic. Today, the Coal Trunk-Line is one of the most prosperous rail routes in Poland. Passenger trains are few (many passenger trains on Tczew - Inowrocław part of this line), but freight trains are very numerous, as this is the fastest way from the industrial areas of Upper Silesia,

Zagłębie Dąbrowskie Zagłębie in Polish means coalfield. It can refer to: *Górnośląskie Zagłębie Węglowe, a mining region *Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, a mining region *Zagłębie Sosnowiec, an association football club *Zagłębie Lubin, an association football clu ...

and Częstochowa to the Baltic ports. The segment of the line from Bydgoszcz to Gdynia is today designated as PKP line 201, the segment from Chorzów to Bydgoszcz is part of PKP line 131 which diverges from Bydgoszcz towards Tczew.

Investor

The Coal Trunk-Line was constructed by order of the Polish Government by a private company, the

French-Polish Rail Association French-Polish Rail Association (Polish: ''Francusko-Polskie Towarzystwo Kolejowe'', ''FPTK'', French: ''Compagnie Franco-Polonaise de Chemins de Fer'', ''CFPCF'') was a Joint-stock company, established in 1931 to complete construction and then usage ...

(FPTK – Francusko-Polskie Towarzystwo Kolejowe). This company maintained the route Herby – Gdynia from 24 April 1931 until 1 September 1939. During that time, the line was not under the authority of the Polish State Railways ( PKP), the FPTK directed it from its headquarters in Bydgoszcz. After the war, the whole line was nationalized.

Main stations

The most important stations on the original route are

Chorzów Chorzów ( ; ; german: link=no, Königshütte ; szl, Chorzōw) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population ...

, Tarnowskie Góry, Kalety, Herby Nowe, Chorzew Siemkowice, Zduńska Wola Karsznice, Inowrocław,

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

,

Wierzchucin Wierzchucin is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Cekcyn, within Tuchola County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Cekcyn, east of Tuchola Tuchola (german: Tuchel; ...

,

Kościerzyna Kościerzyna ( Kashubian and Pomeranian: ''Kòscérzëna''; formerly german: Berent, ) is a town in Kashubia in Gdańsk Pomerania region, northern Poland, with some 24,000 inhabitants. It has been the capital of Kościerzyna County in Pomerania ...

,

Somonino Somonino ( csb, Somònino; german: Semlin) is a village in Kartuzy County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Somonino. It lies approximately south of Kartuzy and west ...

and Gdynia.

Distances

The length of the line is measured from the junction at Herby to the port of Gdynia (e.g. from South to North). Not included is the connection Chorzów Batory – Herby (65 km.) * Herby Nowe (0 km.), * Chorzew Siemkowice (55 km.), * Zduńska Wola Karsznice (99 km.), * Inowrocław Rabinek (247 km.), * Inowrocław Glowny (254 km.), * Bydgoszcz Glowna (299 km.), * Wierzchucin (347 km.), * Bąk (392 km.), * Kościerzyna (413 km.), * Somonino (438 km.), * Gdynia Glowna (480 km.).

Timeline

Dates of construction of the route: * Czersk – Bak – Kościerzyna – 1928, * Herby – Zduńska Wola – 1930, * Maksymilianowo – Bąk – 1930, * Kościerzyna – Gdynia – 1930, * Zduńska Wola – Inowrocław – 1933, The total length of the connection constructed between 1930 and 1933 – 448 km.

References

* Maly rocznik statystyczny, Glowny Urzad Statystyczny RP, Warszawa 1939, * Urzedowy Rozklad Jazdy i Lotow Lato 1939, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Komunikacji, Warszawa 1939, * Polska 1939 – mapa samochodowa, Wydawnictwo PTR Kartografia, Warszawa 2005, * Mapa polskiej sieci kolejowej, wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Komunikacji w Warszawie, 1939.

External links

an interesting page about the line, with photographs and plenty of information
,
history of the line
{{in lang, pl,
gallery of photographs of the line
Second Polish Republic Railway lines in Poland

Route