I'll be following up with some spotlights on domestic changes I find particularly noteworthy over the coming days, in what is hopefully a more sustainable and interesting manner than how I handled ZSK. There's still a lot of material for me to digest around this

4/

Podlachia is pretty much in line with what was already there, in reality or in plans, but the *south*-east saw a notable rearrangement with the main Lublin-Kraków connection being rerouted from the current Radom-Kielce route via Tarnobrzeg and the manufacturing town of Mielec (known for planes and, in public transport circles, passenger info systems), a significant improvement from the network building perspective. The new bihourly line P20 would continue through Katowice onto the Sudety trunk and reach Jelenia Góra, with every other train running a section from Hrubieszów Miasto via Zamość and Biłgoraj, the route of Mielec's only current long-distance connection, the Hetman, which the previous plans merely expanded into a 2h line. One pair would be routed to Wrocław, a relation apparently more important than many realize (all relations between the big cities of the south seem to be much more important than anyone in Warsaw realizes) based on the outcry after the Hetman, originally routed across the south and all the way to Zielona Góra via Żary, was unceremoniously shortened to Kraków, subjecting people from the region to much stress over whether they would make the change.

Other changes in Subcarpathia include line 54 Warsaw-Sandomierz-Rzeszów-Przemyśl being upgraded to Express category and carrying a section for Krosno and Sanok with every other train, and a brand-new line U41 that would connect Rzeszów with Łódź via Stalowa Wola, the currently freight-only line via Staszów to Kielce (that's going to need some serious work to bring back up to passenger-carrying standards, but I'm confident we can do a reasonable job of it quickly), and the CMK. Subcarpathia is not too keen on the latter, but it has the advantage of being electrified throughout, making it runnable, at least provisionally, with whatever old stock PKPIC has in store

5/

#HRJ #kolej #rail #Podkarpackie

Would love to see the day there are regular Hrubieszów-Zamość-Bełżec-Hrebenne-Horyniec-Lubaczów-Jarosław trains, too, that part's ridiculous currently (as Jon can attest)

6/

#HRJ #kolej #rail

Backing up towards the center of the country for a bit, the previous iteration envisioned using the CMK (Central Trunk Line, the soon-to-be-signalled for 250 km/h line connecting Warsaw with Katowice and Kraków) as a dedicated high-speed line, with only one train every 4 hours stopping at the stations in Włoszczowa and Opoczno, a ghastly echo of the old "liberal" (in Karol Trammer's classification) vision where HSLs are for non-stop trains only and people in nearby towns can get screwed. This vision was walked back relatively quickly as the KO-led government promised the construction of a new station near Biała Rawska, having realized it would build up the area as a Warsaw commuter town really, really well. Now, projected non-stop trains from Warsaw to the southern metropolises have been reduced from 4 every hour (2 each way) to 3.5 per hour (2 towards Kraków, 1.5 towards Katowice) to leave room for an hourly stopping train to Warsaw, alternating between the two branches on the other end, and also using a newly prioritized connection from the CMK to "the new airport" (as the central point of the whole project is now called for some reason) for a direct connection there. In Warsaw, they would terminate at Main Station, the former post-war western terminus on Towarowa (Freight Street) pressed into service when works at West Station reduced through-running capacity a few years ago (not to be mistaken for Central Station!). Also added were a direct bihourly connection between Warsaw and Opole (replacing the cuurent serivce of some Pendolinos and EICs that go there as this is the fastest way to Wrocław until the Y gets built), or the aforementioned U41. It's a profile much closer to how it runs today, only faster, and that's respectful of its somewhat unusual character, I feel. It might not be a walk in the park to execute, but it should be worth it.

7/

#HRJ #kolej #rail