RegioJet trains are to run between Warsaw and Krakow. There is a timetable proposal

The Czech company RegioJet wants its trains to run regularly between Warsaw and Krakow from December. The consent to launch the connection may be issued by the Railway Transport Office. The carrier proposed a timetable and is waiting for the final decision. Similar plans as RegioJet also has Leo Express. Now the railway monopoly on the route from the capital of the country to the center of Małopolska is PKP Intercity.

RegioJet plans that its daily trains from Warsaw to Krakow and back will appear on the new annual Polish rail timetable. It will enter into force in mid-December.

The trains of a private carrier are to run every day, twice a day. In Warsaw, they would stop three times: at the Eastern, Central and Western stations. Departures are scheduled for 10:07 and 17:07.

Then the carriages would travel almost 300 kilometers without stopping to bring passengers to Kraków Główny. Trains would start in the opposite direction at 6:45 and 13:45.

RegioJet has calculated that the travel time between the first and the last station will be 2 hours and 20 minutes, which is almost the same distance as it takes for Pendolino trains, the fastest in the PKP Intercity fleet.

It is the state-owned carrier that is the only one to maintain a direct rail connection between Warsaw and Krakow. His trains leave this route on average every hour (except at night).

The Railway Transport Office announced that it received a RegioJet application for approval for the so-called open access, i.e. the ability to use the tracks connecting both cities.

“The proposed service is intended to complement the direct rail connection between Krakow and Warsaw” – said UTK, adding that at the same time a study of “economic balance”, ie the impact of launching new trains on those connections that already exist, was launched.

Not only RegioJet is eager to take over PKP Intercity passengers. At the end of last year, Leo Express, which is also a Czech enterprise, applied for permission to use the Warsaw – Krakow route from December 2020. This carrier has scheduled six trips each way.

– In the Czech Republic, approval takes one month, which is twelve times shorter. That is why we applied for the next route in such advance – said Juraj Andrejka, spokesman for Leo Express, at the time polsatnews.pl.

wka / zdr / polsatnews.pl

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