''Wawel'' is a named international

express train An express train is a type of passenger train that makes a small number of stops between its origin and destination stations, usually major destinations, allowing faster service than local trains that stop at most or all of the stations alo ...

. Introduced in 1995 as an

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

service, it was upgraded to EuroCity

category Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) ...

by its operators PKP Intercity and

DB Fernverkehr DB Fernverkehr AG (German for "DB Long-Distance Traffic") is a semi-independent division of Deutsche Bahn that operates long-distance passenger trains in Germany. It was founded in 1999 in the second stage of the privatisation of Deutsche Bahn, ...

in 2006. The service was withdrawn at the end of 2014 but reintroduced in December 2020. In its early years, the train linked Kraków and

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

in Poland with Berlin and

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in Germany. It was named after the

Wawel The Wawel Royal Castle (; ''Zamek Królewski na Wawelu'') and the Wawel Hill on which it sits constitute the most historically and culturally significant site in Poland. A fortified residency on the Vistula River in Kraków, it was established o ...

, former residence of the

Polish kings Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16th ...

in Kraków. Since 2022, the eastern terminus of the line has been located further east at Przemyśl, a short distance away from the Ukrainian border.

Route

Initially ''Wawel'' ran between Kraków, Poland and Berlin, Germany. Trains originated at Kraków Główny railway station via Katowice and Wrocław and used the railway line towards Szczecin up to the Rzepin rail hub, from where they ran on the Warsaw–Kunowice railway to the Polish-German border and Frankfurt (Oder). Between Frankfurt (Oder) and Berlin, ''Wawel'' ran on the Lower Silesian-Marcher Railway line. Ec wawel zary

In 2001, weekday services were extended to Hamburg while weekend services continued to terminate in Berlin. At that time trains were running via

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exte ...

, passing the German-Polish border at

Forst (Lausitz) Forst (Lausitz) ( dsb, Baršć) is a town in Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany. It lies east of Cottbus, on the river Lausitzer Neiße which is also the German- Polish border, the Oder-Neisse line. It is the capital of the Spree-Neiße distri ...

, then via

Żary Żary (pronounced , german: Sorau, dsb, Žarow) is a town in western Poland with 37,502 inhabitants (2019), situated in the Lubusz Voivodeship since 1999. Previously it was located within Zielona Góra Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the admin ...

Żagań Żagań ( French and german: Sagan, hsb, Zahań, la, Saganum) is a town in western Poland, on the Bóbr river, with 25,731 inhabitants (2019). The town is the capital of Żagań County in the historic region of Silesia. Previously in the Zielo ...

, and Legnica to Wrocław and continued to Kraków. From 2010, trains ran from Żary via

Węgliniec railway station Węgliniec ( pl, Węgliniec stacja kolejowa) is a railway station in the town of Węgliniec, Lower Silesia, Poland. History After the end of the Second World War, eastern Upper Lusatia and Kohlfurt came under Polish administration. Until Sept ...

. In December 2012, the eastern section of the route was cut back to Wrocław, and in May 2013, the terminus of the western weekday extension was temporarily moved east, to

Lüneburg Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also called ...

. The ''Wawel'' has never been able to achieve the journey times of the fast diesel multiple unit trains operated by the

Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...

that ran on the line in the 1930s. Therefore, passenger numbers significantly decreased upon construction of the parallel A4 and A18 motorways in Poland. Service was discontinued in December 2014. The operator of the service between 1995 and 2014, PKP Intercity, then used the name Wawel on some of its domestic InterCity trains from Kraków to Bydgoszcz in 2016, Kraków to Szczecin in 2017 and 2018 and from Zielona Góra to Łódź in 2019. In mid 2017, it was announced that service may resume in December 2019. In September 2019, resumption was pushed back to June 2020 – due to different reasons including the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

crisis. The service finally restarted in December 2020. Compared with the 'old' Wawel train, the route changed completely: The train now originated in Berlin Hbf instead of Hamburg Hbf, between Berlin and Legnica it uses the faster and electrified route via Frankfurt (Oder), and the eastern terminus has been moved further east to Kraków Główny instead of Wrocław Główny. Later, beginning in the 2021/2022 timetable, the eastern terminus was shifted even further East, thus lengthening the line. The line now connects Przemyśl near the Ukainian border, via

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian ...

and

Tarnów Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999. From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Tarn� ...

, to Kraków and destinations further west.

References

External links

* {{EuroCity trains EuroCity International named passenger trains Named passenger trains of Germany Named passenger trains of Poland Railway services introduced in 1995 Railway services discontinued in 2014

Route

See also

References

External links