Warszawa Centralna

Warszawa Centralna, in English known as Warsaw Central Station, is the primary railway station in Warsaw, Poland. Completed in 1975, the station is located on the Warsaw Cross-City Line and features four underground island platforms with eight tracks in total. It is served by the long-distance domestic and international trains of PKP Intercity and Polregio as well as some of the regional trains operated by Koleje Mazowieckie. Adjacent to the north side of the building is a bus station that serves as the central hub for night bus lines, and Złote Tarasy shopping center.

History

Warsaw Central was constructed as a flagship project of the Polish People's Republic during the 1970s economic boom, and was intended to replace the inadequate and obsolete Warszawa Główna railway station.

However, the project encountered substantial problems from the very beginning. The station's design was innovative, but construction was plagued by continuous alterations to the scope of work which in turn hurt functionality and operations upon completion. These problems were partially a result of a hasty completion schedule, with the opening date set to coincide with Leonid Brezhnev's 1975 visit to Warsaw. The design and construction problems necessitated immediate repairs that would continue through the 1980s. Despite the deficiencies, the structure was fairly advanced for its time and incorporated such features as automatic doors, as well as escalators and elevators for each platform. Moreover the each platform was equipped with WC, phone and glazed waiting room.

After a period of decline, a cosmetic upgrade of the station in 2010-2011 was completed in time for the Euro 2012 championships. Between 2015 and 2016, a mezzanine connecting the waiting room in the west wing to the restaurants in the east wing was constructed. It has been both praised for improving the utilization of space in the main hall and criticized for its futuristic design, which clashes with the building's modernist architecture. The Warsaw city government is contemplating demolishing and replacing the station, either at the same location or farther from the city center. Gazeta Wyborcza article: ''Dworzec Centralny. Burzyć czy zachować?

/ref> Some elements of the Warsaw press (e.g. Gazeta Wyborcza and Architektura Murator, 2012), as well as Swiss architect and journalist Werner Huber, have argued against demolition, claiming that the current Warszawa Centralna is a great example and a masterpiece of Modern architecture, modernism in Poland.

The station is fully accessible to the disabled as well as passengers with heavy luggage.

Location

Warszawa Centralna is connected by an underground passage to two other rail stations: to the west lies ''Warszawa Śródmieście WKD railway station'', the terminus of the '' WKD'' suburban light rail line, and to the east lies '' Warszawa Śródmieście PKP'', served by suburban trains run by Koleje Mazowieckie and Szybka Kolej Miejska.

International train services

See also

* Rail transport in Poland
* List of busiest railway stations in Poland

References

External links

Satellite photo via Google MapsTrack diagram

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Centralna
Railway stations opened in 1975
Railway stations served by Koleje Mazowieckie
Railway stations served by Przewozy Regionalne InterRegio
Śródmieście, Warsaw
1975 establishments in Poland