Gdansk to Kaliningrad trains

I understand that summer-only services used to operate from Gdansk to Kaliningrad, but DB's journey planner shows no such services.

Do any trains now operate between Kaliningrad and destinations in Poland?

Î čæñţ confirm but I've heard that there's some sort of border wrangle between Poland & Russia.

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Trains on this route disappeared 3-4 years ago.

Those trains were from Warszawa, before even had coaches from Germany (KÖnigsberg used to draw quite a lot of them-also had less strict visa-rules), but as polrail says, have ceased years ago.
There are (as I remember) 2 daily buses-maybe less wintertime from Gdansk. use e-podroznik.com for info-often it even links into booking-sites.

I believe that you can take a train from Poland to Lithuania and then take another train from Lithuania to Kaliningrad. The trains are not very frequent though. Some of them only run once a day.

You would need to be very desperate to go by train to want to go via Lithuania! And in any case, have those trains restarted? Last summer there was nothing on that route

Edit:

1-3 trains a day from Vilnius to Kaliningrad (from what I can tell they don't stop at Kaunas?) take around 5 hours.

Kaunas - Vilnius is about an hour - lots of trains

Bialystock - Kaunas is about 5 hours, operates Friday to Sunday only. Friday and weekend afternoon trains arrive Kaunas at same time as Vilnius train leaves, morning trains on Sat and Sun leave before you can get to Bialystok from anywhere else

Gdansk - Bialystock is about 7 hours, two trains a day. Theoretical 1 hour connection with the afternoon Kaunas train, which in my experience of Poland wouldn't be enough.

As the journey is only about 100 miles by road, cycling is probably actually a lot more realistic than taking the train!

swt class 450 said:

I believe that you can take a train from Poland to Lithuania and then take another train from Lithuania to Kaliningrad. The trains are not very frequent though. Some of them only run once a day.

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Not with great ease either: http://www.seat61.com/warsaw-to-vilnius-by-train.htm

Another problem with cross-border trains between EU countries and Belarus (or Ukraine) is smuggling. At one time organised gangs were concealing all sorts of contraband, mostly cigarettes, behind interior panels. The nuisance of policing this made the journey times hopelessly uncompetitive with road coaches, even after allowing for gauge-changing.

I did part of this route just recently this summer when i visited Moscow Russia by train from the UK (i have also done the Lithuania to Kaliningrad trains quite a few years ago). I travelled both there and back through Poland then Lithuania then Latvia then Estonia then in to Russia.

There are plenty of trains from Warsaw and Gdansk (and other places in Poland) to Bialystock. Then from Bialystock there is a once a day train to Kaunas (you use to have to change at Sestokai but the train now goes straight through). If i remember correctly this train only runs on Monday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday though.

Then the trains from Kaunas to Vilnius are very frequent (roughly once an hour) and use very nice modern double deck three coach Skoda trains.

From Vilnius there are about four to five trains a day to Kaliningrad. All of these are operated by Russian Railways and originate from other places in the main part of Russia (such as Moscow or St Petersburg or Adler).

The seat 61 website is excellent but it is a bit out of date and doesnt show all options for the Baltic region. For example it says that there are no trains at all from Lithuania to Latvia but you can travel by train from Vilnius to Turmantas and then take a 30 minute taxi ride and pick up another train from Daugavpils to Riga which is better than travelling by bus or coach. There is also incorrect information about enginerring work on the Latvia (Riga to Valga) to Estonia (Valga to Tallinn) trains which does not normally affect Monday to Friday trains any more. But i imagine it must be extremely hard for him to keep this excellent site so up to date and include all options.

So Gdansk to Kaliningrad is still possible by train if you go via Lithuania. But it will take much longer than going by bus or car or taxi. You will also have to spend a night in Vilnius which will add to the cost. But if you are a railway enthusiast or enjoy travelling by train than it is definitely worth it. And it is more comfortable and spacious than travelling by bus or coach.

From Wiki: A unique feature of the Kaliningrad railway is that some tracks in the direction of Poland and Berlin have a standard gauge of 1,435-millimeter (56.5 in) track parallel to the commonly Russian broad gauge of 1,520 millimeters (60 in) mostly for strategic reasons during the Cold War and nowadays for goods traffic. Platform number 6 at the Passazhirsky station can be reached on standard gauge over the former Ostbahn main line from Elbing (Elblag) making passenger through traffic from Berlin possible.

swt class 450 said:

The seat 61 website is excellent but it is a bit out of date and doesnt show all options for the Baltic region. For example it says that there are no trains at all from Lithuania to Latvia but you can travel by train from Vilnius to Turmantas and then take a 30 minute taxi ride and pick up another train from Daugavpils to Riga which is better than travelling by bus or coach. There is also incorrect information about enginerring work on the Latvia (Riga to Valga) to Estonia (Valga to Tallinn) trains which does not normally affect Monday to Friday trains any more. But i imagine it must be extremely hard for him to keep this excellent site so up to date and include all options.

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Mark Smith is always pleased to receive up-to-date info from less-visited areas or about routing options, if they are reasonably easy for the average traveller to use.

Groningen said:

From Wiki: A unique feature of the Kaliningrad railway is that some tracks in the direction of Poland and Berlin have a standard gauge of 1,435-millimeter (56.5 in) track parallel to the commonly Russian broad gauge of 1,520 millimeters (60 in) mostly for strategic reasons during the Cold War and nowadays for goods traffic. Platform number 6 at the Passazhirsky station can be reached on standard gauge over the former Ostbahn main line from Elbing (Elblag) making passenger through traffic from Berlin possible.

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Yes indeed. It appears that the following lines are dual gauge.

• Kaliningrad (Russia) to Bogaczewo (Poland).
• Bagrationovsk (Russia) to Bartoszyce (Poland).
• Chernyakhovsk (Russia) to Skandawa (Poland).

It is quite an unusual layout as these railway lines are simply two tracks (one standard guage and one broad guage) running next two each other. Most other dual gauge railways seem to use actual dual gauge track. At least these lines still see some freight services. Hopefully passenger trains will begin running again between Kaliningrad and Poland at some point.

30907 said:

Mark Smith is always pleased to receive up-to-date info from less-visited areas or about routing options, if they are reasonably easy for the average traveller to use.

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I might send him an email with some updates.

The bus company has a website showing times and fares here:

http://www.pks.gdansk.pl/cennik.php?cen=kaliningrad

The first timetable is summer, the second winter.
Dworzec Autobusowy - Bus Station.

For anyone keen to minimise bus travel (at the expense of spending time waiting for connections), you can go by train as far as Elblag, where the bus station is just outside the railway station. I think Braniewo also has a train service, but not from the Gdansk direction.

On the Russian side, the German version of Wikipedia has a link to a timetable page indicating two trains per day (on working days, I think, although I'm open to correction by people who can read Russian properly) from Mamonovo to Kaliningrad, but only one in the opposite direction (too late in the evening to get the bus to Poland). (Even if you don't read Cyrillic, you should be able to recognise Kaliningrad and Mamonovo as K and M are the same as in our alphabet).

swt class 450 said:

Yes indeed. It appears that the following lines are dual gauge.

• Kaliningrad (Russia) to Bogaczewo (Poland).
• Bagrationovsk (Russia) to Bartoszyce (Poland).
• Chernyakhovsk (Russia) to Skandawa (Poland).

It is quite an unusual layout as these railway lines are simply two tracks (one standard guage and one broad guage) running next two each other. Most other dual gauge railways seem to use actual dual gauge track. At least these lines still see some freight services. Hopefully passenger trains will begin running again between Kaliningrad and Poland at some point.

Click to expand...

I was told by a friend who made the journey just after it once again became possible that every so often along the route there would be a siding off the Russian-gauge line going at right-angles to one side to a transhipment platform, with a similar standard-gauge siding off the other side of that platform leading into the standad-gauge line in the direction of the west.

As for the access for standard-gauge trains into Königsberg station, isn't this not by the direct Ostbahn line but over the wartime Königsberg avoiding line and then into the station from the east?

And just as a historical oddity. Before the post-WW1 settlement it was the Ostbahn that had the longest unbroken sequence of kilometre-posting on any German or Austro-Hungarian line.

181 said:

For anyone keen to minimise bus travel (at the expense of spending time waiting for connections), you can go by train as far as Elblag, where the bus station is just outside the railway station. I think Braniewo also has a train service, but not from the Gdansk direction.

On the Russian side, the German version of Wikipedia has a link to a timetable page indicating two trains per day (on working days, I think, although I'm open to correction by people who can read Russian properly) from Mamonovo to Kaliningrad, but only one in the opposite direction (too late in the evening to get the bus to Poland). (Even if you don't read Cyrillic, you should be able to recognise Kaliningrad and Mamonovo as K and M are the same as in our alphabet).

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Yes that is a good point. Braniewo does indeed still have train services so it should be possible to travel by train to Braniewo then cross the border and get another train from Mamonovo to Kaliningrad.

The Braniewo trains go to and from Olsztyn Glowny where you can change to and from trains between Olsztyn Glowny and Gdansk.

From looking at the timetables on that RZD website (about the Mamonovo to Kaliningrad trains) there are two Northbound trains a day on Mondays to Fridays and one Southbound train a day on Mondays to Fridays. There are no train services serving Mamonovo on Saturdays and Sundays though.

There are indeed buses between Braniewo and Mamonovo. Or it is about a 20 minute Car or Taxi ride or about a two and a half hour walk. Although in reality it will take much longer by whatever method of transport you use as the border control can sometimes be slow and take a long time. The buses are scheduled to take about 40 minutes which doesnt seem too bad.

So it seems like this (going via Braniewo and Mamanovo) is probably the best option for those who want to travel by train as much as possible. It is much quicker than going via Lithuania.

Senex said:

I was told by a friend who made the journey just after it once again became possible that every so often along the route there would be a siding off the Russian-gauge line going at right-angles to one side to a transhipment platform, with a similar standard-gauge siding off the other side of that platform leading into the standad-gauge line in the direction of the west.

As for the access for standard-gauge trains into Königsberg station, isn't this not by the direct Ostbahn line but over the wartime Königsberg avoiding line and then into the station from the east?

And just as a historical oddity. Before the post-WW1 settlement it was the Ostbahn that had the longest unbroken sequence of kilometre-posting on any German or Austro-Hungarian line.

Click to expand...

That sounds interesting about those sidings. I will look out for those if i visit Kaliningrad again. It is a shame that track maps are not that easy to find for other countries. Yes you are indeed correct about the standard gauge line. After Golubevo the standard gauge track goes off on a branch to the East and curves around to Kaliningrad (and approaches the station from the East) going via Dzerzhinskaca Novaya. Where as all of the Russian broad gauge trains continue on the direct line to Kaliningrad (and approaches the station from the West) going via Kievskaya.

You're not allowed to walk across the border between Braniewo and Mamonovo. There are only two border crossings between Poland and its non-EU neighbours which can be crossed on foot: one with Belarus (but unfortunately not Terespol-Brest, which would be useful for rail travellers) and one with Ukraine. You can apparently cross from Slovakia to Ukraine on foot.
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przejścia_graniczne_Polski
http://porteuropa.eu/ukraina/granica/5085-piesze-przejscia-graniczne-rozwiewamy-mity

It occurs to me that anyone planning to use that Mamonovo-Kaliningrad timetable should check whether it's in Kaliningrad time or Moscow time, which is an hour ahead. Many Russian timetables use Moscow time throughout, but I don't know (others here may do) whether or not this applies to local timetables in the Kaliningrad region.

You're not allowed to walk across the border between Braniewo and Mamonovo. There are only two border crossings between Poland and its non-EU neighbours which can be crossed on foot: one with Belarus (but unfortunately not Terespol-Brest, which would be useful for rail travellers) and one with Ukraine. You can apparently cross from Slovakia to Ukraine on foot.
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przejścia_graniczne_Polski
http://porteuropa.eu/ukraina/granica/5085-piesze-przejscia-graniczne-rozwiewamy-mity

The timetables really don't work well for doing rail on both sides.
All bus arrival times in Russia are an hour later in winter as Kaliningrad always has GMT+2.
05:03 Olsztyn - 07:11 Braniewo (train - on this route trains run three times a day)
07:55 Braniewo - 09:30 Kalinigrad (bus)
or in summer:
15:00 dep. Gdańsk bus station - 16:00 dep. Elbląg bus station - 17:40 Marmonovo (bus)
19:36 Marmonovo - 20:40 Kaliningrad (Kaliningrad time)
or:
15:53 Olsztyn - 17:52 Braniewo (train)
18:55 Braniewo - 20:30 Kaliningrad (bus)

15:00 Kaliningrad - 16:55 Braniewo (summer) / 15:55 (winter) (bus)
18:07 Braniewo - 20:06 Olsztyn (train)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
You can buy the bus ticket online (in English as well as Russian, German, Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian) here: http://avtovokzal39.ru/menu_pokup5.htm

Times for suburban trains on the official site are local.

ВРЕМЯ В РАСПИСАНИИ ДВИЖЕНИЯ ПРИГОРОДНЫХ ПОЕЗДОВ УКАЗАНО МЕСТНОЕ!

Yes it is indeed basically impossible to do Gdansk to Kaliningrad (via Braniewo and Mamonovo) by train in a day. The connections just dont work out very well. The only way to do this is to stay overnight in Mamonovo or Braniewo or Olsztyn in the Northbound direction and stay overnight in Mamonovo in the Southbound direction.

These are some of the times (note that the trains between Gdansk and Olsztyn are very frequent and i havent lisited all of them).

Gdansk to Kaliningrad (Northbound)
⬇
12:52 or 13:12 Gdansk (Train)
15:08 or 15:47 Olsztyn (Train)
⬇
05:03 or 15:53 or 20:38 Olsztyn (Train)
07:11 or 17:52 or 22:37 Braniewo (Train)
⬇
07:55 or 16:55 or 18:55 Braniewo (Bus)
08:40 or 17:40 or 19:40 Mamonovo (Bus)
⬇
06:14 or 19:36 Mamonovo (Train)
07:21 or 20:40 Kaliningrad (Train)

Kaliningrad to Gdansk (Southbound)
⬇
18:09 Kaliningrad (Train)
19:09 Mamonovo (Train)
⬇
06:57 or 08:27 or 15:57 Mamonovo (Bus)
07:55 or 09:25 or 16:25 Braniewo (Bus)
⬇
05:23 or 14:07 or 18:07 Braniewo (Train)
07:22 or 16:13 or 20:06 Olsztyn (Train)
⬇
07:45 or 16:52 or 20:41 Olsztyn (Train)
10:48 or 19:08 or 23:06 Gdansk (Train)

I was originally thinking that the Northbound journey would be possible to do in a day if you got a Taxi from Braniewo to Mamonovo. But that what mean that the Taxi driver would need a Russian visa so i dont think that would be possible.

Trains that run entirely within Kaliningrad run do indeed run on local time. It is only the international trains (to and from Lithuania / Belarus / Ukraine / Russia) that run on Moscow time within Kaliningrad.

Probably not a practical way of making the journey, but possibly of interest:

The WikiTravel page says that there are boat services to Kaliningrad from various places in Poland, and I wondered whether these would be another alternative to the bus. If you follow the link to the shipping company's website, it lists (as the only route to Russia) a weekly trip from Gdynia to Baltiysk and back, but my impression is that this is intended as an out and back trip for duty-free shopping rather than a way of getting to or from Kaliningrad; even if the shippping company are OK with one-way journeys (which they don't mention) I wouldn't want to try using it for the latter purpose without being very sure that the Russian border control people were going to let me in (or out).

There is an English version of that page, but it's incomplete, mentioning only the optional coach tour and not the boat journey; the German version is the same.

In any case the boat only goes on Saturdays and it looks as if the one train per day between Baltijsk and Kaliningrad, which appears to be timed for people commuting into Kaliningrad, only runs on weekdays.