The Warsaw Railway Junction ( pl, Warszawski Węzeł Kolejowy) is a set of seven major railway lines centred on the city of
Warsaw. It serves the capital of Poland, as well as cities belonging to its agglomeration of over 2.5 million inhabitants. At its peak the lines of the Warsaw Railway Junction served approximately 250,000 passengers daily.
The hub consists of seven main lines going to
Białystok
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area.
Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...
,
Terespol,
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
,
Radom,
Łódź,
Poznań and
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 ...
, connected by the
Warsaw Cross-City Line and Warsaw Circumferal Line, and the
WKD light rail line to
Grodzisk Mazowiecki.
Apart from train stations in Warsaw, the hub includes the cities of
Grodzisk Mazowiecki,
Milanówek,
Piastów,
Pruszków,
Sochaczew,
Błonie
Błonie is a town in Warsaw West County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with a population of 12,058 as of December 2021.
History
The settlement dates back to the 8th century. It was first mentioned in the 11th century, and already in the 12th c ...
,
Ożarów
Ożarów () is a town in Poland, in the province of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in Opatów county ( Powiat of Opatów), historic Lesser Poland, with 10,399 inhabitants as of December 31, 2021. Ożarów received its town charter in 1569, du ...
,
Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki,
Legionowo,
Tłuszcz
Tłuszcz ( translation: ''Fat'', German: ''Tluschtsch'') is a town in Wołomin County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 8,015 inhabitants (2014).
Tłuszcz is an important railway junction.
History
Tłuszcz was founded in the 15th cent ...
,
Wołomin,
Mińsk Mazowiecki,
Sulejówek,
Otwock,
Warka and
Piaseczno.
The first railway line in Warsaw was the
Warsaw–Vienna railway, opened in 1845, linking the city with the border between the Russian ruled
Congress Poland
Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...
and Austrian ruled
Galicia
Galicia may refer to:
Geographic regions
* Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain
** Gallaecia, a Roman province
** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia
** The medieval King ...
where it connected with the Austrian railways. In 1862 the
Warsaw-Saint Petersburg Railway was opened connecting Warsaw through
Vilnius (Wilno) with the Russian capital followed by the
Warsaw–Terespol Railway in 1866, both lines were built to the Russian
broad gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways.
Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
and only reached the city's eastern part on the right bank of
Vistula River, known as
Praga, as the occupational authorities blocked the construction of a railway bridge across the river for strategic reasons, only allowing the rail terminals to be connected by a
horse tram. In 1875, the Warsaw Circumferential Line was built along with a railway bridge located near the Russian stronghold in the
Warsaw Citadel. In 1877 the
Vistula River Railroad Vistula River Railroad (Polish: Kolej Nadwiślańska) was a railroad system, opened on August 17, 1877. It ran from northwest to southeast, through the territory of the former Congress Poland, known after the November Uprising as Privislinsky Krai ( ...
was built as the third broad gauge line on the right bank in Warsaw linking the city with
Kovel
Kovel (, ; pl, Kowel; yi, קאוולע / קאוולי ) is a city in Volyn Oblast (province), in northwestern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Kovel Raion (district). Population:
Kovel gives its name to one of the oldest runi ...
and with the border of Polish territories under Prussian control in
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
. In 1902 the broad gauge
Warsaw–Kalisz Railway
The Warsaw - Kalisz Railway ( pl, Kolej Warszawsko-Kaliska), also called Kalisz Railway is a railway in Poland connecting Warsaw and Kalisz. It was built between 1900 - 1902 by the ''Society of the Warsaw–Vienna railway'' in the Russian-controlle ...
was constructed on the left bank of the Vistula river connecting Warsaw through
Łódź to
Kalisz and later extended to the border of the Prussian controlled
Province of Posen
The Province of Posen (german: Provinz Posen, pl, Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920. Posen was established in 1848 following the Greater Poland Uprising as a successor to the Grand Duchy of Posen, w ...
. After Poland regained independence following
World War I all rail lines in the country were converted to standard gauge and in 1919 the Polish State Railways began an extensive reconstruction of the city's railway junction connecting the former terminals of the Vienna and Terespol lines with the
Warsaw Cross-City Line, opened in 1933, electrifying the line (1936) and constructing the
Warszawa Główna railway station (opened in 1938). In 1934 a new railway line was opened connecting Warsaw with
Radom and further with
Kraków finalizing the present day track layout.
References
Railway Junction
Rail junctions in Poland
1862 establishments in the Russian Empire
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