🎉 From December: easier #CrossBorderRail connections from Dresden 🇩🇪 to Kraków 🇵🇱 🤔 With a change in... errr... Ruhland (population: 3734) 😡 What? Let me explain... starting with a map! The new 2x a day Leipzig 🇩🇪 - Wrocław 🇵🇱 - Kraków 🇵🇱 - Przemyśl 🇵🇱 train will take the line shown in green, not red
What a surprise boon for the people of Ruhland!
Though if it catches on, the town will be named Wenigerruhland.
To be fair it does have a solid rail service. Although last time I was there the station was rather run down and lacking proper disabled access to the platforms.
Ah, now I see the BlueSky 🧵...
The Leipzig-Wroclaw-Krakow connection was also served by the German Reichsbahn in the former GDR. Twice a day, the train ran via #Dresden- #Bautzen- #Görlitz to our neighbors in Poland and back. That is no longer possible today. Why? Because the Dresden-Klotzsche-Görlitz line is not electrified.
Thanks for telling me *precisely what the thread says* about non electrification 🤷♂️
News from: Dresdener Neue Nachrichten www.dnn.de/lokales/dres... Lok Report www.lok-report.de/news/deutsch... VVO www.vvo-online.de/doc/pm/25082... (PDF)
But why not serve Dresden, Bautzen & Görlitz directly, as they're much more significant than Ruhland & Hoyerswerda that will be served? Because of THIS This is the border bridge between Görlitz 🇩🇪 to the left, and Zgorzelec 🇵🇱 to the right - you can see the electrification masts end in the middle
Germany and Poland agreed in 2003 (yes, more than TWENTY years ago) to electrify the whole Dresden - Wrocław corridor, but Germany has STILL NOT STARTED ITS WORKS BETWEEN GÖRLITZ AND THE EDGE OF DRESDEN So you'd need a diesel locomotive for that section
The border line further north Horka Gbf 🇩🇪 - Wegliniec 🇵🇱 is electrified (done for freight trains initially) - here the masts don't end in the middle of the bridge, and so an electric locomotive (like a PKP IC Vectron, as shown) can operate the whole route Leipzig - Przemyśl if you avoid Dresden
And something better than these 20 year old DMUs between Dresden and Görlitz would be very welcome as well! So yeah, Dresden to Kraków via Ruhland is better than how you'd do it currently, but get on and ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ between Dresden and Görlitz, please! /ends
P.S. There was a small error on my initial map, pointed out to me on Mastodon. As Bluesky still does not have an edit button I add the amended map here. It doesn't change the essentials of the thread through!
Sort of similar story to Bavaria-Czechia connection albeit there's no wired line approaching that border from the German side 😜
Sure. Multiple wrongs don’t make a right!
⚡ of Nuremberg - Cheb dates back to BVP1992... ⚡ of Dresden - Wroclaw had been agreed a little earlier, in the mid-80s. Back then, DR and PKP were struggling with the impact of the 2nd oil shock. P
Not sure if it will go via Großenhain though, as it would have to reverse there (according to the green path). I think it goes via Elsterwerda rather.
Kindly read the thread to the end 🤷♂️
Literally did one minute before you posted that, damn it. 😀
And damn Bluesky for still not having an edit button! 😀