Warszawa Centralna railway station

Warszawa Centralna in 1975. Swiss monthly magazine „Hochparterre” rated it as „Excellent public space: the main hall of the Warszawa Centralna railway station in its original shape.”[1]

Main hall. The futuristic mezzanine was added between 2015 and 2016.

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

However, the project encountered substantial problems from the very beginning. The station's design was innovative, but construction was plagued by continuous alterations to the scope of work and sub-standard quality, which in turn hurt functionality and operations upon completion. These problems were partially a result of a hasty completion schedule, with the opening date set to coincide with Leonid Brezhnev's 1975 visit[2] to Warsaw. 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.[3]

After a period of decline, a cosmetic upgrade of the station in 2010-2011 was completed in time for the Euro 2012 championships.[4] Between 2015 and 2016, a mezzanine connecting the waiting room in the west wing to the restaurants in the east wing was constructed. It has been both praised for improving the utilization of space in the main hall and criticized for its futuristic design, which clashes with the building's modernist architecture.[5] The Warsaw city government is contemplating demolishing and replacing the station, either at the same location or farther from the city center.[6] Some elements of the Warsaw press (e.g. Gazeta Wyborcza and Architektura Murator 2012), as well as Swiss journalist and historian Werner Huber, have argued against demolition, claiming that the current Warszawa Centralna is a great example of functionalist architecture and a masterpiece of Polish modernism.[7]

The station is fully accessible to the disabled as well as passengers with heavy luggage.[3]

Warsaw Central Station on map of the city's rail network

Warszawa Centralna is connected by an underground passage to two other rail stations: to the west lies Warszawa Śródmieście WKD railway station, the terminus of the WKD suburban light rail line, and to the east lies Warszawa Śródmieście PKP, served by suburban trains run by Koleje Mazowieckie and Szybka Kolej Miejska.[8]

The station was one of only a handful of public buildings in Warsaw which suffered a technical fault as a result of the millennium bug. The indicator board shut down for approximately 24 hours on 1 January 2000 while its timing chip was replaced. In the meantime, all departures were announced over the public-address system.

• Rail transport in Poland
• List of busiest railway stations in Poland

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Warszawa Centralna railway station.

• Satellite photo via Google Maps
• Track diagram