Major changes to the national rail timetable today include the PKP state operator withdrawing almost thirty long-distance trains as well as increasing journey times by as much as half an hour on some routes.

Routes most hit by the cutbacks include Warsaw to Lodz, a major commuter line, as well as Warsaw to Lublin, south-east Poland.

Passengers can expect longer journey times between a number of Poland’s major cities, with modernisation works taking place on four mainlines: Warsaw-Lodz, Warsaw-Gdynia, Warsaw-Krakow, Warsaw-Katowice.

Apart from line modernisation, long-distance operator PKP Intercity’s spokeswoman Beata Czemerajda told Polish Radio that “during the winter a number of faults were found with rolling stock which in turn caused delays or cancellations.”

“Shutting down some of the connections will combat [these problems],” Czemerajda added.

Chaos returns to rail stations?

Following the calamity seen across Poland when PKP introduced its new timetable in December, rail operator PKP Intercity has announced that there will not be repeats of such chaotic scenes.

The rail company has been advertising the changes to the timetable for the past two weeks, it maintains, additionally publishing 250,000 information leaflets for passengers.

Earlier, PKP forked out an estimated 61,000 zloty (15,400 euro) on full-page spreads in three major national dailies to apologise to passengers for the chaos seen in December. (jb)