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Kraków

Kraków (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkrakuf]  listen ), also Cracow or Krakow (US English /ˈkrɑːkaʊ/, UK English /ˈkrækɒv/), is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River (Polish: Wisła) in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life and is one of Poland's most important economic hubs. It was the capital of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1038 to 1569; the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1596; the Free City of Kraków from 1815 to 1846; the Grand Duchy of Cracow from 1846 to 1918; and Kraków Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1998. It has been the capital of Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999.

The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second most important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was already being reported as a busy trading centre of Slavonic Europe in 965. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre. The city has a population of approximately 760,000, with approximately 8 million additional people living within a 100 km (62 mi) radius of its main square.

Warszawa Centralna railway station

Warszawa Centralna is the primary railway station in Warsaw, Poland. Designed by architect Arseniusz Romanowicz, its construction began in 1972 and was completed in 1975. The station, located on the Warsaw Cross-City Line, features four underground island platforms with eight tracks in total and is served by the long-distance domestic and international trains of PKP Intercity and Przewozy Regionalne as well as some of the regional trains operated by Koleje Mazowieckie

History

The station was constructed as a flagship project of the People's Republic of Poland during the 1970s western-loan fueled economic boom, and was meant to replace the inadequate Warsaw Główna.

However, the project encountered substantial problems from the very beginning. The station's design was innovative but plagued by continuous alterations to the scope of work and sub-standard construction quality, which in turn hurt functionality and operations upon completion. The problems with the scope and construction were in part to blame on a hasty completion date set to coincide with Leonid Brezhnev's 1975 visit to the capital of the Soviet Union's largest satellite state. 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.

Kraków Główny railway station

Kraków Główny Osobowy (commonly called Dworzec Główny, Polish for Main station) is the largest and the most centrally located railway station in Kraków. The building, constructed between 1844 and 1847 (architect: P.Rosenbaum), lies parallel to the tracks. The design was chosen to allow for future line expansion. The station was initially a terminus of the Kraków – Upper Silesia Railway (Kolej Krakowsko-Górnośląska, German: Obeschlesische-Krakauer Eisenbahn). Trains entered the trainshed via a brick archway at the northern end of the station which was almost doubled in size in 1871.

History and early connections

The station opened on 13 October 1847, with the first train leaving for Mysłowice (the point where the Austrian, German and Russian Empires adjoined during military partitions of Poland).

The railway line was extended eastwards in 1856, when the first section to Dębica (then Dembitz in the Habsburg Empire) was built by the k.k. priv. galizische Carl Ludwig-Bahn connecting Kraków with Lwów in Galicja. The increasing traffic resulted in the station's modernisation and enlargement in several stages between 1869 and 1894. The next substantial expansion took place in the 1930s in the reborn Polish Republic. At that time the northern brick wall and trainshed were demolished, the latter replaced by individual platform roofs.

Warszawa Wschodnia railway station

Warszawa Wschodnia (English: Warsaw East Station) is one of the most important railway stations in Warsaw, Poland. Its more official name is Warszawa Wschodnia Osobowa (literally translated as Warsaw East Passenger). It is located on the eastern side of the Vistula river, on the border of the Praga Północ and Praga Południe district, on the Warsaw Cross-City Line. It serves a large number of trains as all trains passing through the more important Warszawa Centralna railway station and Śródmieście stations also stop or terminate at Wschodnia station.

History

The station first started operating in 1866 as the terminus of newly built Warsaw–Terespol Railway. By 1933 the station was rebuilt as a through station with the opening of the Cross-City line. The station building was destroyed during World War II, and in postwar decades provisional, temporary buildings were used to serve passengers.

The current station building opened in 1969 and was for a while the most modern large station in Warsaw. In the following years it received little investment and so fell into disrepair. At the beginning of the 21st century it was considered the worst railway station in Poland, according to Gazeta Wyborcza which gave it last place in the ranking of 23 most significant Polish railway stations.