Train Travel in Poland
I visited four cities in Poland in total, and traveled by train among all four. After train travel in Germany and France, with handy online booking and seat reservations, train travel in Poland wasn't quite so straightforward. For example, between Warsaw and Krakow there were several options the morning I wanted to leave, all leaving about an hour apart from each other, and each taking approximately 3 hours. However, when I asked what the prices were, the earliest train was double the price of the others, because it was an Express train. But the Express also took the same amount of time to reach Krakow as the non-Express! Of course I ended up taking the cheaper option, on what is known as a TLK train. I learned later that TLK stands for "Twoje Linie Kolejowe," or "Your Railway Lines," although this name is only a couple years old. The old name was "Tanie Linie Kolejowe," or "Cheap Railway Lines!" I did certainly feel that the trips were a good value - each segment was only US$15-$19.
Here's the train from Łódź to Katowice - the other trains Warsaw-Krakow and Krakow-Łódź were pretty much the same.
The seats are not in open cars like an airplane, but in separate compartments of eight seats each, four facing each other. I always find transit upholstery fascinating - this one shows the logo of PKP (Polish State Railways).
On another train, there were armrests between each seat, and the PKP logo went in a perpendicular direction, with PKP adorning the curtain as well. There's no air conditioning on these TLK trains, by the way.
I had been really concerned about not having seat reservations on the train (only Warsaw-Krakow had compulsory reservations in 2nd class), but it really wasn't a problem at all. I always had a seat next to me empty, and new people coming into the compartment always asked politely if they could join the compartment.
Not all trains are like the TLK trains. This train was actually a local train running between towns around Katowice. It was really modern.
The EuroCity train I took from Katowice to Prague was also modern and air conditioned. I think it was more or less a Czech train, though, because the information pamphlets all reflected the logo of the Czech Railways, ČD.
Besides the confusion of the different train options (there are also two different companies operating services, and tickets are not valid between the two), I was also confused by how the platforms were marked. In Germany, for example, you go to a certain track according to a number, and if you have a reservation for a certain car, you stand at a certain place on the platform according to a letter. In Poland, you see listed on the timetable "Peron," which is platform, but platform refers to both sides of the platform. "Tor" refers to track, and "Sektor" refers to the part of the platform where you stand for the car. Three numbers to tell you where to stand - I was always double-checking that I was getting the numbers straight!
Finally, I did try purchasing tickets online, but the system kept saying what I entered in the name field was invalid. Finally, I just tried inputting a Polish-sounding name based on the manager's name of the hotel I was staying at, and the system then let me register! I wonder how it could tell I wasn't Polish!
All in all, though, traveling by train was a fun way to go. Polish people pretty much respect lining up in orderly lines as far as I experienced, unlike other cultures, and when sharing a compartment, people respected others' personal space which was nice. Plus it was enjoyable to see the countryside. The lack of air conditioning wasn't an issue either - you just crack the windows open a little to get a nice breeze going. I was lucky because the compartments I sat in had working windows! I saw other people struggled their windows.
