Polskie Koleje Panstwowa (PKP) - Polish State Railways

Polskie Koleje Państwowe (PKP) Polish State Railways SA is the dominant company in PKP Group. PKP SA has 100% share control in all companies in PKP Group and is fully responsible for managing them.

The company was founded after dividing Polskie Koleje Państwowe (all-national rail operator) into several dozen companies to meet European Union standards.

All other companies belonging to the group are dependent on PKP SA, but plans for privatisation are in progress.

Total length of rails in Poland managed by PKP but owned by the state is 23,429 km.

History of the PKP

The history of rail transport in Poland dates back to the first half of the 19th century when railways were built under Prussian, Russian, and Austrian rule. After Polish independence on November 11, 1918, the independent Polish state administered its own railways until World War Two, when control was taken over by the Germans and Soviets.

1835-1914

Silesia

In 1835, the railway line connecting Warsaw, Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, and Kraków was completed. That same year construction of the Wrocław-Upper Silesia line was started by the Upper Silesia Railway Society.

Construction of the railway line from Wrocław to Mysłowice was finished in 1846, and Wrocław was connected with Berlin by the Lower Silesia-Marchijska Railway. One year later the construction of the Mysłowice-Kraków line was completed and the line was connected with the Warsaw-Vienna line.

The Upper Silesia Railway Society connected Silesia with Poznań and Szczecin in 1856 and the Karol Ludvig Galician Railway connected it with Lwów in 1861.

Opening the Silesian Mountain Railway from Zgorzelec via Lubań|Luban Ślaski and Jelenia Góra to Wałbrzych (extended to Kłodzko in 1880) took place in 1867. In 1906, the opening of the Kaliska Railway connection with Prussian railway in Nowe Skalmierzyce took place.

North Railway of Kaiser Ferdinand

In 1836, permission was granted to the North Railway of Emperor Ferdinand, to build a line connecting Vienna, Ostrava, Kraków and Bochnia.

Two railway lines were opened in 1842: Wrocław-Oława (on May 22) and Oława-Brzeg (in August). A year later, the Wrocław-Jaworzyna Śląska railway line was opened by the Wrocław-Świdnica-Świebodzice Railway.

Warsaw — Vienna line

In 1838, a new company was founded, the Iron Railway Stock Society, and the same year it applied for permission to build the Warsaw-Vienna Railway line. Construction started in 1840 but halted in 1842 when the company went bankrupt. The shares and property were teken over by the government in 1843 and the construction continued. The first section (from Warsaw to Grodzisk Mazowiecki) was finished on June 15, 1845, and before December it reached Skierniewice. Construction was finished in 1847, and a year later, after the outbreak of the Spring of Nations, the first large international railway-military operation dispatched over 200,000 mounted Russian soldiers from Warsaw to Vienna and Budapest to help the emperor of Austria put down the uprising.

In 1859, the government of Russia turned over the Warsaw-Vienna Railway to a private company.

The Engineering Railway School in Warsaw was opened in 1873. One year later the first railway bridge over the Vistula river was opened in Warsaw. As a result, the Warsaw-Vienna line was connected to the broad gauge lines on the east bank of the river.

In 1894, the Warsaw-Vienna Railway ordered 13 fast steam locomotives of the Prussian S2 design, and a number of 4-axle coaches from Schwartzkopff.

The decision was made to nationalize the Warsaw-Vienna and Warsaw-Bydgoszcz Railways and the broad gauge Kaliska Railway. One year later, a decision was made to re-gauge the Warsaw-Vienna Railway to broad gauge track.

Prussian lines

Poznań was connected with Berlin and Szczecin in 1848 with the opening of the Stargard-Poznań Railway. One year after a connection from Berlin to Königsberg was planned, passing through stations like Kostrzyn nad Odrą, Krzyż, Piła, Bydgoszcz, Tczew, and Gdańsk. Known as the East Prussian Railway the main branches of were opened in 1852, but the construction of the connection between Tczew and Malbork was not done until 1852 because of construction of bridges across Vistula and Nogat rivers. The line opened in 1858.

An economic crisis caused by the speculation of railways shares hit the stockmarkets in Germany and Austria in 1875. The Chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck, supported the suppression of speculation on railway joint-stock companies. He also supported the obligatory purchase of railways from private owners, as well as the introduction of an exclusive goods rate for the transport of agricultural products from Pomorze and Mazury to Berlin.

In 1893, the Prussian railway introduced the first modern fast trains using the new steam locomotive (S2/class Pd2) which could reach a speed of 100km/h. The trains also included 4-axle closed cars with a covered gangway between cars (D-Zug). One such fast train route was that from Berlin to Bydgoszcz and Gdańsk. In 1898, the first steam locomotive running on hot steam in the world, designed by Prof. W. Schmidt, was produced by the Vulkan company in Szczecin for Prussian railway (KPEV Hannover 74 S4). This opened a new age of steam locomotive development. Construction of the prototypes of a steam locomotive series for hot steam by Dr. Robert Garbe started in 1902. These were: express engine S4 (class Pd2), mixed traffic engine P6 (class Oi1) and freight engine G8 (class Tp3).

In the same year nationalization of the Marborsko-Mławska Railway (the last big private railway under Prussian occupation) took place.

Production of the standardized steam locomotive prototypes by Prof. R. Garbe, in the Linke-Hofmann locomotive factory in Wrocław, for Prussian railway continued during 1906, with 584 of S6/class Pd5 produced, of which 82 engines passed to the Polish State Railways. Approximately 4000 of P8/class Ok1 were produced, of which 257 passed to the PKP before World War Two, and 429 after the war. One of these, Ok1-359, still runs out of the museum in Wolsztyn.

In 1910, the Oleśnica-Odolanów-Ostrów Wielkopolski line was opened, this shortened the connection between Wrocław-Łódź and Warsaw. Construction of the prototype of the long series 0-10-0 Prussian freight locomotive G10 (class TW11) and mixed train class P8 (class Ok1) by Prof. R. Garbe took place the same year. Three years thereafter, production of cargo locomotive G8.1 of the Prussian railway (class Tp4) in the F. Schichau factory in Elbląg started, with a total of 5267 engines being produced, 459 being operated by the PKP.

Russian lines

The first broad gauge line in Poland was opened in 1866 on the Warsaw-Brest route, which resulted in the connection of Warsaw with Moscow and Kiev. Later, another broad gauge line was added: the Iwanogrodzko-Dąbrowska Rail from Dęblin via Radom-Bzin (now Skarżysko-Kamienna)-Kielce-Tunnel to Dąbrowa (now Dąbrowa Górnicza Strzemieszyce) and from Bzin to Łódź via Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski-Tomaszów-Koluszki. This caused a temporary decrease of cargo transport (mainly coal) on the Warszawa-Vienna Railway. The Russian General Staff confirmed the exclusive production of broad gauge equipment in the territory of Russia. The Russian authorities refused extension of the Wrocław-Warsaw Railway (Oleśnica-Podzamcze) to Łódź and Warsaw on their territory.

Opened in 1867, the Łódż-Fabryczna Railway was double tracked from Koluszki to Łódź and was the most profitable railway in Poland. The same year, two other lines were opened: (Szczecin-Gdańsk via Stargard Szczeciński-Białograd-Koszalin-Lebork; Poznań via Zbaszynek-Rzepin with Frankfurt by Odra River and Gubin). In 1888, all railroads in Russia were nationalised.

The revolution of 1905 in Russia and Poland stopped the rail traffic on many lines.

World War One

Soon after annexing Polish areas, the German railway army regauged the railway from Russian (broad gauge) to standard width (1435 mm). On the Russian side, most of the rolling stock of the Warsaw-Vienna Rail, Warsaw-Bydgoszcz and Kaliska Rail (as well as the headquarters of these lines) was relocated to Russia. In response to a counter-attack by the Russian army, German General Ludendorff ordered the destruction of strategic parts of the Warsaw-Vienna line and the Kalisz Railway between Warsaw, Łódź, Kutno and Kalisz.

In 1915 the regauging of a significant portion of all broad gauge track to standard gauge was completed by the German and Austrian armies. As the railway bridge over the Vistula River had been damaged, the Germans used ferries to move locomotives across the river in Warsaw. During the same year, construction of military railways on the routes Wielbork-Ostrołęka and Rozwadów-Sandomierz as well as additional lines on the Kalisz Railway took place. Modern German railway rolling stock replaced the broad gauge stock which had been moved to Russia.

1918-1939

On January 3, 1918, the Regency Council remitted the managing of the state railway in the former Poland to the Ministry of Business and Industry. In fact, the management belonged to Militäreisenbahn-Generaldirektion Warschau (MGD). In October of the same year, the Regency Council brought into being the Ministry of Communication.

On October 31, 1918, Polish railwaymen took over the Railway Directorate in Kraków and railways in Galicia and Śląsk Cieszyński, beginning the takeover of railways in the former Russian and Austrian sectors. Polish railwaymen took over the management of railways in the Warsaw district on the same day.

Independent Poland railways

Gaining independence on November 11, 1918 allowed Poland to reclaim the former Russian and Austrian sector from military railways. The Railway Department in the Ministry of Communication was created and the Polish railways were officially named Polskie Koleje Państwowe.

In December of 1918, the Great Poland Uprising started. The rebels took over the former Prussian sector of railways. One year later, the fighting for Lwów was over and the former Austrian railway directorate was taken over by Poland.

After the victory over the Red Army in the Polish-Bolshevik War (1920), a great deal of damage in railway structure was discovered on the route along which the communists were retreating.

Polish railways administration finally took over the railways in Upper Silesia in 1922. That same year, a decision was made to divide railways in Poland into nine administrative districts.

An economic crisis in the 1930's forced the state to cut back its budget for railway investment. Profit decreased by 50% in comparison to 1929. The next year, over 23,000 PKP employees had been dismissed and protests and strikes causes authorities to try to find a solution to the problem. The end of the crisis and increase of cargo transport and income came in 1937.

Rolling stock

The government of Paderewski purchased 150 steam locomotives built in the USA in 1919. The same year French authorities offered 100 captured German steam locomotives and 2000 freight cars. Next, 25 items of class Tr20 locomotives were ordered from the USA in 1920.

The Polish fought to execute due compensation of railway rolling stock from the defeated Central Powers, mainly Germany, in accordance with Art. 371 of the Versailles Treaty, and the Treaties of Saint Germain (from Austria) and the Trianon (from Hungary) took almost three years (1921-1923). About 2900 steam locomotives from the former German railways and over 1300 from the Austrian railways were received.

In 1921 the PKP ordered numerous engines from German (Ok1, class Tp4, class Tw1) and Austrian factories (class Tr12, class OKm11). Construction of Austrian steam locomotives class Tr12 from spare parts in Warsaw Steam Locomotive Company Ltd. started as well.

Construction of the First Locomotive Factory in Chrzanowice began in 1923. That same year local production began in the Warszawa Steam Locomotive Joint Stock Company. The first Polish steam locomotives in Germany and Belgium (class Tr21, class Ok22, class Ty23) were ordered. A year after, steam locomotive production in H. Cegielski factory in Poznań began. Financial problems stopped the orders for the rolling stock abroad.

In 1936, the Factory in Chrzanów designed its own express steam locomotive class Pm36, there being two versions. They were designed by Engineer K. Zembrzuski. In 1937 streamlined Pm36-1 won the gold medal on the world exhibition in Paris. The speed test of class Pm36 on the back way from Paris reached over 150 km/h on German rails.

New railway lines

In 1920, a decision was made to construct new railway lines: Łódź-Kutno-Płock-Sierpc-Nasielsk, Kutno-Strzałkowo, and lines bypassing sections broken by the new border with Germany and Gdańsk.

A year later the Kutno-Konin-Strzałkowo line, shortening the connection from Warsaw to Poznań started. The construction of the Kutno-Płock and Swarzewo-Hel lines started in 1922.

In 1924, the Nasielsk-Sierpc line and construction of a new port station and railway junction in Gdynia opened. A Custom War with the Germans, started in 1925, causing a rush to build the Gdynia port and a detour line from Silesia to the seaside passing by German territory.

In 1927, the first Polish electric railway was built: private EKD Warszawa-Podkowa Leśna-Grodzisk/Milanówek with branches to Włochy near Warszawa. The French-Polish Railway Society finished construction of the coal trunk line between Bydgoszcz and Gdynia in 1933. In 1934, the beginning of the use of a new railway line, Warszawa-Radom, opening the new connection from Warszawa to Kraków, and preparation to electrify the lines in the Warsaw suburbs commenced.

The opening of first electric line based on direct current 3000V from Warszawa to Otwock and Pruszków took place in 1936.

World War Two

On September 1, 1939, railwaymen of Szymankowo stopped a German armoured train before its arrival on the bridge over the Vistula River and blew up the bridge. After the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland on September 17, 1939, most of Polish rolling stock fell into Soviet hands.

The Polish railways in Silesia, Wielkopolska and Pomorze were incorporarted into German railways Deutsche Reichsbahn after September 25.

To the last moment before attack of Germany on the Soviet Union in 1941, the cargo trains transported goods from the Soviet Union to Germany. The beginning of German attacks on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 resulted in the possession of railway and rolling stock by Ostbahn and the possession of PKP rolling stock with broad gauge track and the reconstruction to standard gauge. The beginning of organized sabotage by the Polish resistance movement on railways took place about the same time.

In 1942, production of the military steam locomotives, DR Kriegslok BR52 (PKP class Ty2), in Poznań and Chrzanów, and of steam boilers for these locomotives started in Sosnowiec.

The Warsaw Uprising caused widespread damage of the Warsaw network. Both bridges over the Vistula River and the underground tunnel on the Warsaw Cross-City Line were destroyed.

In 1944, productions of the first steam locomotive of BR52 started at the Chrzanów works.

Communist period

In 1945, the Ministry of Transport was created, as well as the Regional Directorate of National Railways. Many pre-war locomotives were sent to the Soviet Union and Poland received many German locomotives as a compensation for war losses. In June, the rail connection with Warsaw was opened, using a temporary railway station made of warehouses. On September 15 1945, PKP took over management of all railway lines on new Polish territory from the Soviet Union. Most of these lines were either destroyed or inaccessible. The country was divided into 10 districts.

In 1946, the Fablok and Cegielski factories started the production of class Pt47 (pre-war class Pt31) and class Ty45 (pre-war class Ty37) locomotives. Meanwhile, the production of PKP class Ty42 (German BR52) was in process and Poznań prepared to start the production of class Ty43 (German BR42) which had been produced in Szczecin previously. The situation in the Polish railways had been disastrous, so the government decided to buy 75 USATC S160 (class Tr201) American locomotives (on UNRRA basis), 30 British locomotives (class Tr202) locomotives, and 500 S160 (class Tr203) locomotives, what was left from American army in Europe. Another 100 locomotives ordered from USA (Decapol - class Ty246) were sent to service Śląsk-Gdynia line. In the same year, electric trains started an operating line from Warszawa to Otwock.

Polish railways regained pre-war locomotives from Hungary, Czech Republic and Jugoslavia (in 1947), yet units from the eastern parts of Poland were taken over by USSR and rebuilt to operate on a wide gauge. Two years after the war's end, the first passenger cars are built in Cegielski (Poznań) and PaFaWag (Wrocław), while freight cars were being built in Chrzanów and Zielona Góra. At the same time, Warsaw railway lines were rebuilt together with the tunnel under the country's capital. As a part of the Ministry of Communication, the Bureau for Railway Electrification was founded. The first projects were to rebuild all lines that had been electrified before the war, and then the Warsaw-Żyrardów-Skierniewice-Koluszki and the Warszawa-Sochaczew lines would have been electrified. The electrification was planned to bring 3000V AC into Polish railways.

The modernised version of class Pt31 locomotive started in 1948, the locomotive gained new name, class Pt47. Reconstruction of German S-Bahn EMU's started the same year, which had to enable using overhead traction system in the Tricity area. Those EMUs were renamed class EW90, class EW91 and class EW92 and soon after (in 1951) stared operating on SKM lines. In 1949 the construction of Tomaszów Mazowiecki - Radom line is finally done. The 50s in Polish railways were the time of serious development and improvements. In 1950 construction of class TKt48 locomotive started and two years later class Ol49 steam locomotive prototype was build. 1953 brought several new types of electric rolling stock into PKP. 10 units of class EP03 electric locomotives and 40 units of class EW54 EMUs were ordered from Sweden. EW54 EMUs were sent to operate on lines connecting Warsaw with Mińsk Mazowiecki, Żyrardów and Sochaczew. Meanwhile class EP04 and class EU20 locomotives were ordered from DDR, alongside with class EN56 and class ED70 EMUs.

Polish production in that period included class EW53 EMU and class EP02 locomotive. In 1954 the prototype of the last heavy freight steam engine - class TY51 - was built. New lines opened that year are Skierniewice - Łuków line and Sitkówka - Busko Zdrój line.

PKP classification system'

Polish locomotive designation is a system of assigning letters and numbers to series and individual locomotives used by the PKP - Polish national railroad operator.

The system was introduced in 1923, shortly after Poland regained her independence (1918), when the Polish railroads inherited a variety of German, Austrian and Russian steam locomotives, each with its own type convention. The adopted solution allows telling the locomotive type (passenger/freight/mixed), wheel arrangement, origin and some other information from the type designation. After World War II a similar system was also adapted for diesel and electric locomotives.

Electric and diesel locomotives

First letter

• E - electric locomotive (Polish elektryczna)
• S - diesel locomotive (Polish spalinowa)

Second letter

Locomotives:

• P - passenger locomotive (Polish pasażerska)
• T - freight locomotive (Polish towarowa)
• U - mixed-traffic locomotive (Polish uniwersalna - universal)
• M - shunting locomotive (Polish manewrowa)

Electric Multiple Units

• W - for high platforms (Polish wysoki)
• N - for both high and low platforms
• D - for long distance traffic

Diesel railcars and multiple units

• D - for long-distance traffic
• N - for suburban traffic
• R - special purpose (mobile workshops, emergency use etc.)
• A - railbus (Polish autobus szynowy)

Numbers

Electric locomotives

• 01-14 - four axles, Bo-Bo, direct current, 3 kV
• 15-19 - four axles, Bo-Bo, alternating current
• 20-34 - six axles, Co-Co, direct current, 3 kV
• 35-39 - six axles, Co-Co, alternating current
• 40-49 - other types

In the case of electric and diesel locomotives consisting of two cars, the letters A and B were added after the serial number for each car.

Electric Multiple Units

• 51-64 - three car sets, direct current, 3 kV
• 65-69 - three car sets, alternating current
• 70-74 - four car sets, direct current, 3 kV
• 75-79 - four car sets, alternating current
• 80-89 - single electric car, any current
• 90-93 - two car sets, direct current, 800 V
• 94-99 - other types

Diesel locomotives

• 01-09 - mechanical transmission, single steering
• 10-14 - mechanical transmission, multiple steering
• 15-24 - hydraulic transmission, single steering
• 25-29 - hydraulic transmission, multiple steering
• 30-39 - electric transmission, single steering
• 40-49 - electric transmission, multiple steering

Diesel railcars and multiple units

• 51-59 mechanical transmission, single steering
• 60-69 mechanical transmission, multiple steering
• 70-79 hydraulic or hydrauli-mechanical transmission, single steering
• 80-89 hydraulic transmission, multiple steering
• 90-94 electric transmission, single steering
• 95-99 electric transmission, multiple steering

Steam locomotives

First letter

The upper case letter means:

• P - fast train locomotive (Polish pospieszna)
• O - mixed/stopping train traffic (Polish osobowa - passenger)
• T - freight locomotive (Polish towarowa)

Second letter

Second letter (lower case) indicates the wheel arrangement, in increasing order of the number of driving axles.

• a - one driving axle, any number of unpowered axles
• b - 0-4-0
• c - 2-4-0 or 0-4-2
• d - 4-4-0 or 0-4-4
• e - 2-4-2
• f - 4-4-2 or 2-4-4
• g - two driving axles, more than three unpowered axles,
• h - 0-6-0
• i - 2-6-0 or 0-6-2
• k - 4-6-0 or 0-6-4
• l - 2-6-2
• m - 4-6-2
• n - 2-6-4
• o - three driving axles, more than three unpowered axles
• p - 0-8-0
• r - 2-8-0 or 0-8-2
• s - 4-8-0 or 0-8-4
• t - 2-8-2
• u - four driving axles, more than two unpowered axles
• w - 0-10-0
• y - 2-10-0
• z - five driving axles, more than one unpowered axle
• x - narrow gauge, all axle arrangements ("x" also could mean six driving axles, but such locomotives were not used in Poland)

Third letter

In the case of tank engines, the letters designating the type of engine and the wheel arrangement are separated by a 'K' or 'k' (there would appear to have been no convention as to the use of uppercase or lowercase). Thus TKt48 is a 2-8-2 tank of Polish design introduced in 1948.

Number

• 1-9 - German production steam engine
• 10-19 - Austrian production steam engine
• 20-99 - Polish steam engine, number stood for the last two digits of the year in which the type was approved for production
• 100-199 - Other foreign steam engine, acquired by PKP between 1918 and 1939.
• 200-299 - Other foreign production steam engine, acquired by PKP after 1945.

Serial numbers

Following the letters and numbers described above, the serial number of each individual locomotive is stated. This consists of several digits, separated from the type designation characters by a dash.

Tenders

First number

• First number of tender classification described water capacity in cubic meters.

Letter

• Letter described the number of axles, i.e.:
  • C - three axles
  • D - four axles

Second number

• This referred to the year of construction, so number 23 means the construction was approved in 1923.

An example

A tender numbered 22D23 can carry up to 22 m³ of water, has four axles, and its construction was approved in 1923.

External link

• PKP - Polish State Railways