Double-decker trains in Poland?

Am pretty sure I saw a double decker train in Wrocław last night (2 sets of illuminated windows, wider ones on what might be the upper deck). I wasn't previously aware Poland had them. Is this new rolling stock? Or was it a French train passing through?

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Double-decker_trains_of_Poland

They been in Poland for as long as I can remember! Momma hates them, used to ride them to school for too long, so they must have been in Poland in the 70s, the 1870s!

Plenty of double decker trains, especially in Western Poland but now also in Warsaw.

Thanks, I'd never seen one here until last night. Quite surprised to learn they're common here!

There are these relatively new double-deckers on the line Radom - Warszawa.
radom.gazeta.pl/radom/51,48201,13949244.html?i=6

Nice :)

But I don't think I saw that one because the upper deck window configuration doesn't match.

Do you know what (as an older gentleman) I'd like to see in Poland with regard to the railways........Nice toilets on trains and lots of them......I'd travel happily in the old 70's German style cattle trucks if the toilets were nice.......I don't think I've ever travelled on a train anywhere with really nice clean toilets.

I used a bathroom on a regional railways train (the newer stock, perhaps 1990s) and the bathroom was more spacious than can be found on some new estate flats in Partynice. I'm not entirely sure that's an exaggeration.

It's nothing new and they have nothing in common with France. Rather with Germany. After division of PKP they fell to Przewozy Regionalne. And they are used by them on the most busy local railway lines without overhead wires.

See:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhp (currently only few of them are still used AFAIK)
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goerlitz_Bmnopux/Bmto

In Warsaw local connections are serviced by Koleje Mazowieckie, not Przewozy Regionalne, and they have some much newer double-decker carriages:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Twindexx

See also:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_wagon%C3%B3w_pasa%C5%BCerskich_eksploatowanych_w_Polsce - carriages to be pulled by an engine
(double-decker in Polish is "piętrowy")
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_elektrycznych_zespo%C5%82%C3%B3w_trakcyjnych_i_wagon%C3%B3w_eksploatowanych_w_Polsce - electric multiple units and motor carriages

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_spalinowych_zespo%C5%82%C3%B3w_trakcyjnych_i_wagon%C3%B3w_eksploatowanych_w_Polsce - diesel multiple units and motor carriages

- all these are used in passenger railway in Poland

I'm looking forward to travelling on the new pendolinos. Ready from December we hope. I think for me the biggest difference will be the cut in time to Wroclaw from 6 or so hours to 3.5 hour. So possible in a day whereas before it wasn't.

They trialled them in the UK and passengers didn't like them, specifically when they go round corners at high speed. Good though that they'll cut the Wroclaw journey by so much. Providing people don't mind the nausea.

I think I've travelled on them as Virgin use them on some routes through Birmingham. As I remember, the tilting was pronounced especially when you're walking around but I don't get nausea. Still think it would be a good improvement on current stock in PL. I meant the Wawa - Wroc journey in case it wasn't clear.

Polish Pendolino will no go round corners so fast because it is lacking of the "tilt" feature.

Their speed is limited in the UK too - not so much for the tilt as for other safety issues to do with signalling.

It would be good to have them on the Warsaw-Berlin route.

I am not sure, but it seems the Pendolinos will be operating on some routes from 14 December. I hope Wrocław included as it'll make Warsaw easier to reach.

btw the Pendo likely owes some of its design to British engineering in the 1970s with the APT
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Passenger_Train#Further_uses_of_APT_technology

Yes, they will. On the route Wrocław-Warsaw too - 5 trains per day in each direction. But of course not on the shortest one, through £ódź, as nobody thinked about modernising it. They will go through Częstochowa and Opole instead. And £ódź - the third biggest city in Poland - will have no Pendolinos at all.

And due to introduction of Pendolino, they took many "normal" trains from the fastest railway line in Poland.

They will not go from Warsaw to Berlin.

A - let's say - draft of the timetable from 14 December is available here: rozklad.plk-sa.pl/WyszukiwaniePolaczen

Under "TRASA" in "WYJAZD Z" you put the departure station, in "DO" the arrival station (main station in cities have usually the word "G£ÓWNY" or "CENTRALNY" after the name of the city, or they are the name of the city alone). Unter "TERMIN" you set date and time (December is in Polish "grudzień"), choose "Odjazd" if it is supposed to be the departure time, "Przyjazd" for arrival time. Then press "WYSZUKAJ PO£ĄCZENIE". Pendolinos are marked as "EIP" (short for "Express InterCity Premium"). Not to mistake with EIC ("Express InterCity") which is a normal train (with engine and carriages) of high standard.

Nice set of instructions, thanks, and I can see they are scheduled for 15 December, etc, as the screenshot shows below.

But I don't see how to buy any tickets. Is that via another website?

• 
  Screenshot showing departures of EIP
  

bilet.intercity.pl/logowanie.jsp?lang=EN

They probably don't have the new timetable in the system yet.

By the way, one of Pendolinos broke a pantograph during test a few days ago. Now the Pendolino producer and the operator of overhead lines are quarreling who is to blame for it. Alstom says it was because of the overhead wire covered with ice, PKP Energetyka - that everything was OK with the wire and Alstom calibrated the pantograph wrong.

Sounds like the normal sort of teething troubles and they'll doubtless sort it. Good that they're modernising the railways, much as I like the old trains. i wonder if they'll get many takers for the new services if they'll cost more. I generally travel on Intercity in first class which is never full (and usually plenty of places in second class) whereas the TLK/Interregio/Pociąg Słoneczny are often jammed with passengers.

They are going to introduce a dynamic ticket selling system too, so that the first sold tickets would be cheap. Like in airlines or in PolskiBus.

The Warszawa-Berlin route does that - it's quite a bargain if you book early but only a few tickets at the lowest prices. Makes a lot of sense.

Not only this line works so, but almost every TLK train. For about 2 years, I think. But the new system is going to be much more developed. Not with 2 lower price levels, but really dynamic.

They do that in the UK - great if you're booking a long way ahead but a total drag if you want to add a ticket for someone at the last minute.

In Poland if you want to go last minute, you can always choose TLK or a train of Przewozy Regionalne and still pay a reasonable price. Comparing for example with Germany, where trains are generally very expensive, even taking into account the difference in salaries.

They're much cheaper and for some routes they have first class and wagony Wars - the downside is that they can be absolutely jammed sometimes with not even a comfortable spot on the floor.

Thanks kpc. I'll use that to book. I wonder if it's the same site that asked for more on the screen than it actually cost to buy at the window last time I travelled. I can't remember now.

If you travel in the UK, a single or 1 way (ie not round trip) ticket each way or split tickets often work out cheaper - this free website can show you the best options

moneysavingexpert.com/split-cheap-train-tickets

If you are changing trains within one company (for example PKP Intercity, one might be TLK and the other one EIC, it doesn't matter), in the ticket office you should get one ticket for the whole route. Or a set of tickets if the trains are of different category (if you go from A to B by TLK and from B to C by EIC, you should get a ticket from A to C for TLK and from B to C for the difference between EIC and TLK price). Sometimes these ladies at the windows are lazy or they don't know how to do it (especially from the moment the seat reservation began to be obligatory, free of charge and integrated into the main ticket), but it's possible. And it's cheaper than two separate tickets. But on the webpage you can buy two separate tickets only. So in such a situation it might be more expensive.

Or sometimes if the price between 2 stations is "cena relacyjna", that means it is set to be cheaper than according to distance between them in km, the website has sometimes problems with it. This system is not perfect. One of Przewozy Regionalne - biletyregionalne.pl/login - works better, for example allows to buy one ticket when you are changing trains, although I also met problems with "cena relacyjna" (in Przewozy Regionalne called "Połączenie w dobrej cenie").

So currently in Poland it works just opposite than in the UK, "split ticketting" (sometimes involuntary, like in case of incompetent lady in ticket office, or using the website for buying tickets; or if we change trains between different companies, then there is no other option) makes the journey more expensive, not less expensive.