#zskpolska — Public Fediverse posts

Polentakt hype intensifies

Two weeks after the reveal of the current government's long-term plan for railways (see #ZSKPolska for more on that one), last Monday saw the reveal of a new, more fleshed-out iteration of the Horyzontalny Rozkład Jazdy (Horizon Timetable), the short-term plan for an integrated passenger railway network to be achieved by 2035.

It brings major changes to integrate ideas developed since the last iteration of 2024, with a new set of lilac supplemental rychlík lines that seem to mostly correspond to the planned network of hybrid electric/Diesel (ESD162 and Gama 3.0) routes. It also marks the return of the Regional Express concept (which in the HRJ context means not the usual German kind, but rather regional HSR trains - more like BaWü's RE200) and, most importantly of all, the first nationwide regional rail plan, built in collaboration with all voivodeships. Of course, it's up to the latter how much of it actually gets implemented and the result does look a bit crayon-y (and the horizon is tentatively marked as 2030-2040). I think this is fine - this first attempt is clearly more intended to get an idea of goals, non-goals and what size of offer should be possible to provide.

…Which is sort of the main issue - they identified a whole bunch of bottlenecks that may require compromising on major parts of the plan (there's no way to redo *all* the urban nodes and poorly thought-out modernizations in 9 years) and designated them priority targets for in-depth studies using another addition to the Port Polska/CPK stable of modelling tools, the track-by-track, block-by-block Kolejowy Model Mikrosymulacyjny (Microsimulation Railway Model). It's also anyone's guess where the trains are going to come from for some of it.

(They also removed the "KDP" (HSR) line designations and merged them into Ex. Guess they realized it doesn't make that much sense to distinguish them while most of them run on souped-up conventional lines for large parts of their routes)

1/

#HRJ #kolej #rail

And to round things out things out, ZSK proposes rebuilding an Orneta-Lidzbark Warmiński-Bartoszyce connection (forming a secondary trunk together with the aforementioned Gdańsk-Elbląg-Orneta route and the to-be-reactivated Bartoszyce-Korsze line and onwards), where the shadow project wants the whole étoile de Lidzbark rebuilt and topped off with sixth arm to Dobre Miasto (shortening Lidzbark's connection to Olsztyn). Most of those lines would probably best be left for if and when the voivodeship gets serious about running good service, though.

North-south Giżycko-Orzysz-Pisz is definitely needed, also to improve military mobility, and as mentioned before, the bone of contention is whether it should connect directly to Kolno, Łomża and Ostrołęka (as Wild says has been already studied, and was written into expanded TEN-T) or via Szczuczyn as ZSK proposes (which adds detours and delays, but might result in better passenger service, I think)

Thank you for following this thread, if you did follow it. I'm not sure how good it is, but I wanted to let non-Poles have a bit of a closer look at the state of things I suppose. It's still mostly a battle of crayons amidst a background of small reactivations and slow improvements in most other fields, but it's a whole lot better than what we're hearing from Germany, where the federal government has been largely cancelling investments lately, as I understand it.

Meanwhile, among all the other horrors, Polish rail is taking another step forward, and while ZSK is not the equivalent of the highway construction plans of the last quarter-century, the message from most corners is clear - it's time to let rail catch up. There are more arguments ahead of us, but it goes on to show that this is important to people and won't be given up on easily

30/30

#ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

A *very* eyebrow-raising detail I haven't actually seen anyone mention is that they apparently want to rebuild the Człuchów-Wierzchowo Człuchowskie connection that the Germans built along the interwar border to give the town good access to trains on the Ostbahn and disappeared when it went back away, and divert long-distance trains through there. Makes no sense at all to me - run a good Regio service!

/29

#Pomorskie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

From Olsztyn, the new trunk would run up the poorly-used Olsztyn-Braniewo line to Orneta, then from there west to Słobity on a new routing (the original one entered Orneta from the wrong side, for one), from whence along existing lines to Elbląg, and then with a new, straight line via Nowy Dwór Gdański (said to be among the counties bordering Voivodeship capitals with the worst public transport connections to said capital, if I recall correctly) to Gdańsk - this northern part, I endorse without reservation - the area could very much use better connections than the roundabout railways they have now. If the two halves can't be reasonably fitted together around Olsztyn, however, a slight lowering of the parameters would probably be in the books.

28/

#WarminskoMazurskie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

The minds behind ZSK also decided another secondary trunk between Warsaw and the Tricity is necessary, both to better integrate Warmia-Masuria and because they don't think the HSL and existing line will handle the load. (I suppose the theory is that loads will dramatically increase on the CMK too, hence the new line via Kielce and Busko?). It would branch out from the existing Warsaw-Gdańsk line around Mława (and an unspecified length of that line would be quadruple-tracked), and run about due north from there to Nidzica, where it could meet the existing line, whose limits and routing are a legacy of the German-Russian border that ran north of Mława prior to World War 1, and then further north to Olsztyn, cutting the distance by the better part of ten kilometers and entering the city with the Szczytno line…
…Except as, again, Wild seized on in his critique, between Nidzica and Olsztyn it's basically impossible to build a straighter line due there being a whole bunch of protected forest and lake in the way. And that straightening, he says, is pretty much critical to accomplishing the travel time goal of Warsaw-Olsztyn in 70 minutes cited by the project (currently about 140 min with Stadler Flirt ICs). The shadow project's chief architect emphasizes the need to build a shorter exit from the Warsaw node bypassing Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki (that routing being, I believe, another legacy of Russian paranoia) instead, an idea once materialized by Poland's interwar government, only for war to come and, despite the line's increased importance with the new borders, the location of the bridge over the Narew to be reused for the (in)famous Przyjaźń/Druzhba/Friendship pipeline.
I'm sure many would appreciate that, but with other parts of the right of way having been reused for local roads, it will be difficult - and with it, so would halving travel time to Olsztyn - though I think there's still room for significant speedups with the measures that look reasonably doable

27/

#ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

Said idea being a new 250 km/h Bydgoszcz-Poznań HSL, probably reusing the exisitng, but largely inoperational Bydgoszcz-Szubin line, and from there probably following the expressway to Gniezno, returning rail connections to Żnin (how much of the other lines in the area would be reactivated is still in the air, probably). Combined with the new Poznań-Wrocław HSL it would probably bring a new, much faster successor to today's Baltic Express ('s domestic portion, at least. What will happen at the Czechia border is anyone's guess now with the Babiš government's cuts to Czechia's HSR plans) that would nonetheless hit most of the same main points. This one might, perhaps, be left for a bit later, but it seems helpful.

26/

#KujawskoPomorskie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

So, finally the north, where I find myself agreeing with Wild on some things. For example, that detouring the Warsaw-Tricity high-speed line to pass through the outskirts of Toruń doesn't make sense. That line should be fast, faster than the existing route via Iława! (For the record, I think there should be tracks bypassing Kalisz station for the same reason - no need to make trains that won't stop there anyway slow down unnecessarily).
I think there's plenty of ways to connect the twin capitals of Kuyavia-Pomerania to the line. It's fairly reasonable to get Bydgoszcz-Warsaw traffic onto the line in Włocławek, and there are also options like modernization and building a connection to the existing net near Lipno, or arranging connections at the intersection with the Poznań-Olsztyn line. It *is* true that Toruń has awful connections to the Tricity for the distance (especially since it also has a direct motorway connection), but a good bit of it is down to poorly-coordinated service, I would say.

The guy was also apparently positively surprised by the gov project's idea to add a line connecting the HSL to the existing Tricity-Bydgoszcz line from south of Grudziądz, providing a connection to the town of Świecie that used to have its own little branch. This ties into another of ZSK's ideas for the region

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#KulawskoPomorskie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

On the other hand, the shadow plan envisions a line over (or under?) the Zalew Szczeciński/Oderhaff Szczecin-Nowe Warpno-Świnoujście. That sounds kind of out there, too (I mean, in a 20 year perspective, anyway. Maybe it would be a good idea for the 2100 plans)

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#Zachodniopomorskie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

Wild only has Wysoka-Świdwin and the Świdwin-Szczecinek idea was one he not so much criticized but made fun of. And yeah, it looks interesting on a map, and you might be able to do some interesting things with it, but it requires a whole bunch of trail unconversions and, well, I'm sure Połczyn-Zdrój is a nice place, but it's probably not a priority for a secondary trunk, either.

23/

#Zachodniopomorskie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

So, Western Pomerania… aside from the aforementioned HSL from Poznań via Gorzów that somehow managed to secure cross-party consensus, ZSK has five ideas here, and most of them raise *my* eyebrows.

First, they want to build a Szczecin outer ring following the expressway one that's getting started. That might be good for freight, and down the line also passenger traffic, but their models seem to have the proportions backwards for some reason. Also crossing the Oder there looks like it would have to skirt protected wetlands, but judging from junction shapes they're already planning to do it with damned road, aren't they.

The second is rerouting Tricity-Szczecin traffic via Kołobrzeg, Trzebiatów and… Kamień Pomorski, via a rebuilt line, or maybe one routed closer to the area's well-known beach town Rewal and Trzęsacz. And between Koszalin and Kołobrzeg the whole line would be rerouted to run via Mielno, Koszalin's own beach town that currently gets summer service on a municipally-owned branch line. Which… routing via Kołobrzeg and Płoty, and upgrading the line to match, I can understand now that I realize it's roughly the same distance as the current route, but via the more important towns. I suppose I get why they routed the S6 expressway that way now. And sure, let seasonal services run through Kamień, and Mielno should keep its branch. But to detour *all IC traffic* via Mielno and Rewal/Kamień which *does* add kilometers? Nah.
A line out from Darłowo towards Koszalin doesn't sound like a huge priority, except maybe militarily? Building more rails *just* to run extra trains through the airport also gets a nah from me.

And then there's Wysoka-Płoty-Świdwin-Połczyn-Szczecinek. This is mostly a reconstruction of old lines, except that they decided to straighten things out at the eastern end where the original line turned north to Grzmiąca. The idea is apparently that this would bring a direct connection from the port of Świnoujście to bases in inland Pomerania.

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#Zachodniopomorskie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

I also really need to draw attention to the weirdness of how the to-be-reactivated-and-serve-military-purposes Żagań-Zebrzydowa line somehow becomes a secondary trunk in favor of Żary-Węgliniec, and, in the freight model, somehow takes over a pretty big stream of freight traffic coming from Głogów, which would pretty much require building a curve they don't show to avoid turning trains in Żagań, that then goes Zebrzydowa-Nowogrodziec(reactivation)-Lubań Śląski(brand-new line)-Mikułowa-Zawidów(all existing)-(Czechia). That's not even consistent with the main map which shows a bunch of these as minor regional lines. Like, seriously, what the hell is this:

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#ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

I suppose this is getting really overlong (maybe I should practice writing in private, somewhere scrapers aren't lying in wait to build a fingerprint of me or something), so I'll try for more brevity.

in the south-west, it feels like the ZSK is breaking a sort of taboo, or at least some of the ideas behind @Alon's thinking are now finding their expression in official plans with Gliwice-Opole-Wrocław-Poznań dedicated HSR for the first time. Expect this to be highly-contested, as Wild doesn't see it as a priority (though particularly Poznań-Wrocław doesn't have two existing corridors like Wrocław-Opole and Opole-Gliwice do).

I also find surprising that ZSK gives Polkowice not just a regional line, but outright reroutes most passenger traffic between Wrocław and Głogów through there, to the point of including a Ścinawa-Lubin connection to detour the regional trains running the old route through Polkowice, as well. I know place has actual industry and it's where everyone's favorite Polish shoe and apparel giant is based, but does this make the place quite that important? So important that they're going to be looking into awkward approaches circling around Głogów from the south to the east? I wouldn't say so.

20/

#ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

Looking further up that arc there's one of the more ambitious projects I have fewer reservations about, a new north-south trunk through the middle of Łódź Voivodeship, from Radomsko via Bełchatów and Łódź to Kutno (and onwards over the existing line to Płock to connect with the new HSL to the Tricity and the new transversal northeastwards). That's intended to be possibly even 250 in parts and seems like a reasonable conclusion after we've given up on doubling all of the existing Łódź-Kutno line in favor of point improvements (the northern half is also in the shadow plan, in addition to a line connecting the southern suburbs of Łódź with Piotrków, following the road network more closely). Combined with a much-needed Wieluń-Chorzew-Bełchatów-Piotrków corridor (I'd treat Piotrków-Tomaszów as more of stretch goal), this should play a good role in turning Bełchatów from a lignite town into a good commuter town (and God, I had not realized that power plant was only opened in 1982).

In addition, both projects want to straighten some things out with Opoczno-Przysucha and Kielce - Skarżysko-Kamienna shortcuts, though ZSK probably assigns higher parameters to both of these, I wonder what differences they're seeing there

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#ZSKPolska #kolej #rail #Łódzkie

The minds behind ZSK, however, apparently saw differently, in a way that's either really far-sighted (if traffic to Kielce or Kraków-Łódź explodes, or the CMK does end up so congested that speeds have to be limited, which is still hard to imagine) or a dumb waste of money and people's time… namely, a mixed-use sorta HSL line ("HSL standard" is thrown around a fair bit in ZSK to indicate lines that should be HSLs… but don't all look like they'd actually end up dedicated HSLs) branching out in Opoczno, following the existing line until Końskie (a political shrine by now), then a shorter route to Kielce, then along the existing line to Busko-Zdrój (that area is bound to see attention disproportionate to its population density, which is of course why hardly anyone can agree in all but the broadest of strokes how exactly it should be handled), then to around Kazimierza Wielka (formerly home to a system of windy narrow-gauge lines) where it would meet a sort-of hump line connecting it to both Kraków and Tarnów. This would be supposed to take some ICs off the old line between the two… Though it seems unclear how this would be handled around Kraków Główny, also in combination with the last part of this idea - a Kraków-Katowice HSL apparently routed alongside the A4 motorway.
Tunneling east-west under the whole city doesn't seem workable to me, but perhaps something more limited would happen? Or maybe the trains would take the Nowa Huta ring south to Podłęże and enter the city from that way?

In any case, the ZSK project spends quite a few words touting the benefits of a Katowice-Kraków-Kielce-Łódź/Warsaw arc, which would perhaps sound more convincing if they weren't also planning a big new trunk between Katowice and Łódź, too.

Then again, I wonder, maybe this is what it take to cope with a world where the train is the majority mode of transport. It's a slippery vision.

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#ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

And now, we get to another eyebrow-raiser - ZSK's surprising new answer to the Kraków-Silesia question.
The CMK, Poland's original HSL-to-be, serves Warsaw's connections to both the Upper Silesia-Zagłębie conurbation and Kraków. However, having been originally designed with more freight use in mind, it has a nice chord finish towards the former… while the more numerous Kraków-bound trains have to deal with a non-collision-free, single-track exit (which is to be rectified soon) and the increasingly bottlenecked Kraków-Kozłów section of the old Warsaw-Kielce-Kraków line.
The Wild solution to this conundrum was to extend the CMK to a new junction around Bukowno near Olkusz, which seems to have grown over time into a station and gained the name Lesser Poland-Silesia Junction (also known by the abbreviation WMŚ), presumably from its border location. Anyway, from there, feeding trains into Katowice is still easy (though results in Sosnowiec and Dąbrowa Górnicza being stripped of a large number of long-distance connections), a new line is built towards Kraków via Olkusz and another one south to Oświęcim. It's not a bad idea and was pretty broadly accepted, not least because it also solves the long-standing problem of Olkusz having a significantly worse connection to its voivodeship capital than by road, even if it involves some hill-, forest-, mine- and desert-dodging

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#ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

For Subcarpathia, aside from the aforementioned HSL for Stalowa Wola and Rzeszów, there's the idea of using a line that supplies a power plant in Połaniec on the Vistula as the base of a new Kielce-Rzeszów corridor connecting Mielec and Kolbuszowa. The shadow plan opts for just Połaniec-Mielec and a curve bypassing Dębica for the Rzeszów connection, which seems like a more economical option unless traffic on the Kraków-Rzeszów-Przemyśl trunk gets really bad - and even then the gov plan envisions upgrading it to 250, which ought to put quadruple-tracking into consideration, I think?

In the south, the proposals are a curve allowing trains from Rzeszów to turn towards Krosno without having to trek several kilometers west to Jasło and back, and a Wisłoka valley line between Dębica and Jasło (which they apparently see some interregional traffic on), as oppsed to the shadow project's Rzeszów-Krosno and Rzeszów-Sanok tunnel-fests.

Both plans recommend cutting the detour between Stalowa Wola and Sandomierz/Metan that exists probably solely because that's where the Austria-Russia border was back when that system was being built.

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#Podkarpackie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

I'll admit my confidence in my ability to cover all this and whether it was a good idea is slightly dented. I think there's a reason I prefer to talk about things closer to materializing.

But anyway, Wild has reached the conclusion that the aim of the project was to mess up most north-south TEN-T lines and delay things: https://xcancel.com/WildPatryk/status/2066920525746634875

Which, well, he's the one who's been keeping up with the exploratory study work, and he's got a point with regard to throwing existing ones out… On the other hand, the ZSK routing north of Łomża seems passenger-friendlier to me, if in no small part because it means more people get intra-voivodeship relations (which is a pretty silly reason objectively, but the practical consequences are what they are - I suppose military considerations do speak for a straighter route, though - things are going to be tough).

15/

#ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

For all that the south-east is considered PiS's home turf, the new Wild plan appears to have given up on dragging HSLs out there and opted more for local density improvements and upgrades of existing lines… But when the gov map was unveiled, the point he seized on to criticize it was, perhaps surprisingly, TENT.

I'll admit I was not aware the current TENT supplementary core network includes a new line Siemiatycze-Biała Podlaska-Parczew… but it does. And Wild wasted no time ranting on Xitter about it being completely missing from gov planning (for defense reasons, I assume).

In its place, the government proposes connections in Łuków, as well as new line connecting the HSL from the direction of Lublin to around Międzyrzec Podlaski via Radzyń Podlaski, more for freight than passenger use, if the models are to be believed

14/

#ZSKPolska #Lubelskie #kolej #rail

Moving on, Lublin. Here, the idea is to build an HSL, albeit probably one with parameters more similar to the existing CMK than the new Y or French LGVs.
The line would branch out from the Warsaw-Terespol line around Mińsk Mazowiecki (also known as a train repair works town where Newag's anticompetitive geofencing triggered on trains in regular service), making its way to Łuków in gentle curves bypassing Siedlce, the cutting straight to Lubartów and Lublin. This was another eyebrow-raiser, given that this routing increases the distance between Warsaw and Lublin… but on the other hand eliminates direction changes in Lublin for trains headed to points south, with a new, straightened out and heavily upgraded corridor to Stalowa Wola, and a brand-new, shorter line from around Nisko or Rudnik nad Sanem to Rzeszów would enable Warsaw-Rzeszów times of 2 hours, which also suggests HSR there. Another branch would head straight for Zamość, followed by Tomaszów Lubelski and the Ukrainian border, with the idea that it would connect to Lviv.

This routing is pretty significant, and a likely bone of contention

13/

#ZSKPolska #Lubelskie #rail #kolej

Going back east, both sides agree on the need to rebuild Małkinia-Sokołów Podlaski (and reopen Sokołów-Siedlce and Małkinia-Ostrów Mazowiecka-Ostrołęka for passenger traffic), a project cheered on by the voivodeship… Well, let me show you how that looks.

See the purple section? That stands for the most dreaded of statuses a reactivation project can possibly run into, "dismantled, repurposed". And this case is heavier than some cycling path or dirt road.
You see, the same Mazovian Voivodeship that's been looking to show its support for the endeavor of restoring rail service to its northeastern reaches has been busy using the former right of way to straighten out the voivodeship road, with bypasses included for "free" - not the rarest event in Poland, but nonetheless relatively uncommon. They've already done it with Małkinia-Kosów Lacki, and the rest is under construction.
So, this is going to require a new right of way, and it was all quite avoidable, too.
And make no mistake, this is being framed as an important freight corridor for the east. So dumb

11/

#Mazowieckie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

The Serock-Pułtusk-Maków-Przasnysz project already ended up with some rather unattractive routing outside the towns' ring roads - just take a look at OpenRailwayMap - this doesn't read like a regional railway to you, does it? The planned terminus location in Przasnysz doesn't look like an auspicious place for a junction, either.
Such is the way of building around old towns, and it's a good look at some of the challenges involved in planning a new right of way these days. At least Drobin and Glinojeck look small enough that walking distances are unlikely to be an issue

10/

#Mazowieckie #ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

Yeah, moving on to northern Masovia, BOTH projects have Płock-Raciąż-Ciechanów-Przasnysz (as well as the already more closely planned expansion of the Zegrze branch of the Warsaw SKM into a full-blown regional railway through Serock, Pułtusk and Maków Mazowiecki to Przasnysz). Where they differ is the other two arms of the planned cross. Wild went with straight lines to Chorzele (the voivodeship border town on the Olsztyn-Ostrołęka line) and Ostrołęka - the ZSK planners, on the other hand opted for only one arm to reach the existing line halfway between Chorzele and Ostrołęka, while the other would go to Mława, a route with an extant, though unused, narrow-gauge line, actually. Not much has been said about it, but I imagine from the thickness of the line that resilience and having route bypassing Olsztyn and Warsaw for the Gdańsk-Ukraine route are considerations

9/

#Mazowieckie #ZSKPolska #rail #kolej

The other change envisioned for the voiuvodeship would divert the Olsztyn-Ostrołęka-Białystok corridor through 20k Zambrów (another county town) and 8~9k Wysokie Mazowieckie. Even the shadow project, designed by people with a political interest in maximizing investment in the east as it is, opted to leave them with connecting buses (in favor of a Płock-Raciąż-Glinojeck-Ciechanów-Przasnysz-Ostrołęka transversal line, mind……… ok, eating those words right now, actually).

Getting rid of the current Ostrołęka-Łapy line would be rather difficult to sell, too, so I'm not sure it this will happen

8/

#Podlaskie #ZSKPolska #rail #kolej

It's hard to decide where to start, but might as well go clockwise from the north-east. So, Podlachia!
Here, the main headline is the expansion of Rail Baltica into a new "North-East Trunk", to be formed by improving the present Tłuszcz-Ostrołęka-Łomża lines, then putting down a new one via small towns Kolno and Szczuczyn to Grajewo, where it will join the existing line and continue according to previous Rail Baltica plans via Ełk, a bypass of Olecko to avoid direction changing and Suwałki to Lithuania. A small local line would connect Szczuczyn to the southern of the three Masuria east-west lines in Biała Piska.
All this is claimed to enable Warsaw-Suwałki travel in 2 h, yielding average speeds of ~150 km/h in my rough calculations…
…It's certainly A Way to avoid making trains bound for the Baltics change directions in Białystok, as everyone seems to have accepted that there's absolutely no way to build any new lines north of that city. A SkyscraperCity poster called the routing through Kolno contrived - the expressway certainly goes straight for Szczuczyn - and they're probably right - one of the political goals of the project is to enable fulfilling pledges to bring back rail to every county/powiat town and Kolno is one. And while it's probably something for 20-25 years in the future, I'm somewhat concerned for the future of this project, given that right now, Tłuszcz-Ostrołęka is being upgraded piecemeal without ensuring the OLE can actually handle the new line parameters, yielding no speed up for electric trains, only diesels. OTOH, you could say it's precisely because this project will require doubling and upgrading the OLE again to a type that can handle at least 200 km/h that only the minimum needed to enable Warsaw-Łomża ICs should be done now…

As for the shadow plan, that one actually skips Szczuczyn entirely, and routes from Ostrołęka direct to Łomża, then to Kolno and from there in a straighter route to Ełk with a branch to Pisz, no doubt over the long-forgotten German line.

#ZSKPolska #rail #kolej

With that in mind, let me upload some involved maps before I walk through additions planned in ZSK and possible issues involved in each part of the country, so you have an easier time following at home.
More stuff can be found at https://zsk.gov.pl/rozne-2/do-pobrania/ for the gov project and at https://www.takdlacpk.org/blog/aktualnosci-4/cpk-po-konsultacjach-spolecznych-mamy-projekt-docelowej-sieci-kolejowej-w-polsce-1059 for the shadow project (this one includes, in particular, what I can unfortunately call fantasy maps of proposed long-distance and regional service routes at most)

6/

#ZSKPolska #kolej #rail

Let me preface future posts with a note that I have decided to refer to the "Tak dla CPK" proposals as "the shadow project" or "the new Wild plan" or similar for the time being, which I hope will be less confusing to people not caught up on renames and other shifts in Polish politics, also possibly from a future point of view (I recall recently snorting at some Railway Gazette article that still hasn't realized that name has been dropped as too associated with PiS for the current government's tastes).

The former term derives from the notion of a shadow cabinet, which is not a permanent fixture in Poland, but applicable to the backers of that set of ideas, who were in charge of equivalent work back when the largest opposition party PiS was in power. Patryk Wild is the name of the primary mind behind their railway development policy, including the original "spokes" plan.

5/

#ZSKPolska

Having read through more ZSK info, considered it and slept on it, I think it's a step forward.
Apparently there's currently some division of responsibility between the HRJ (Horyzontalny Rozkład Jazdy/Horizon Timetable) and ZSK projects, in that HRJ currently covers investments through 2035 (which means mostly Podłęże-Piekiełko, the Warsaw-Łódź-Poznań/Wrocław Y high-speed line, and possibly a line to connect to Czech high-speed rail in Ostrava), while ZSK is to set out general plans for 2035-2060. Well, it says something like "until 2050-2060", but I know what I believe in. And with a 2060 horizon, they sound actually doable, even if they raised some eyebrows in places.
They say they were developed with the help of not just local experts, but also passenger traffic models developed by the CPK project, to which ZSK adds a freight traffic model. Some parameters, like whether the line would be built to HSR standards, were defined, and travel time targets were set. The current government's "100 minute Poland" (aim to connect Warsaw to most Polish cities in ≤100 min) is joined by a "3 hour Poland" (aim to make most cross-country journeys take 3 h or less).

And if I think they're focusing on grand buildout plans, and less on actual integration, good connections between trains, and "small" interventions that notably improve capacity, I also remember that the Swiss system as we know it is also shaped by later compromises on grander plans, as the planners asked themselves "How can we get the desired results with smaller investments?".

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One interesting change in both visions - they add a new railway, probably high-speed, between Poznań and Szczecin via Gorzów, in addition to the reactivation and upgrade of the Szamotuły-Międzychów-Skwierzyna line already in the making. Previous projects assumed trains to Szczecin would run on existing lines

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I probably shouldn't have been surprised that the association of defenders of the older CPK project "Tak dla CPK" published their own crayon last Friday, supposedly to be achieved by '2045'.
Well, the 'out-there' spokes are gone, at least.
Now, they want new S-Bahn tunnels in Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław, as if we haven't been sucking ass on building one cross-city railway tunnel for years already. And electrification of most newly built and reopened regional lines with 25 kV AC, I guess because 'less substations'. Somehow, I don't see voivodeships buying new bi-mode EMU fleets for backwater routes that would be more affordable with batteries.

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So, the government unveiled today an… actually somewhat vague map of yet another railway network rework project called the "Zintegrowana Sieć Kolejowa" (Integrated Rail Network, https://zsk.gov.pl), which is supposed to answer the question of "If not PiS's 'spokes', what should we be building?".
For all the "Integrated" branding and boasting about all the studies, experts and scientists that went into it, it doesn't come with so much as a vague service concept (or at least I haven't found any newer than the HRJ for 2035) and categorizes lines in terms of "base", "supplemental" and "other" corridors without clearly specifying what kind of standard would be expected of the new lines… or where upgrades to existing lines should be prioritized, for that matter.
Not to mention, the map treats still formally managed by PLK as 'existing', which is… far from the truth.

I'm certainly hoping this vision gets fleshed out, though I fear there's going to be a LOT more partisan tug-of-war before we see much concrete stuff beyond what's already being worked on.

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