I have returned from my trip to Warsaw, and had an excellent time.
- The railway museum was one of my favourite parts of the trip (and also my non-enthusiast friends!). The inside is quite interesting (but most things are just in Polish), but the highlight for me was the outside. You get to see the large area of old station platforms, and see the large number of rusting disused locomotives, mostly steam. You can enter a few of the locomotives, both steam and electric. We had the museum to ourselves for the whole time we were there. The museum certainly has a unloved feel about it - it felt like I was back in pre-1989 Poland - but that adds to the charm for me!
- I had a lot of rides on the tram network, where plenty of Konstal 105Na units were still in service. They do not seem to be allocated to any particular route, but just appear randomly on any route it seems. The next-tram indications show this by displaying a wheelchair symbol, so you can tell which tram will be a Konstal. I even saw one of the Konstal 13N trams, but I believe this is a heritage unit - i'm not sure what this was doing. I also saw a red 105Na full of Valentines balloons - presumably also a heritage unit as it was painted red. It was interesting seeing the double-deck bridge (highway on top, trams underneath), and the rather dingy tram stop on the bridge.
- I only had one ride on the Metro (the trams were more convenient for us), but was impressed with my experience of it. I particularly enjoyed the destination indicators displaying an image of the type of train which would be next - that only seems to be of use to enthusiasts and railway staff, but it was a nice touch. I got to experience the 81.717 Metro trains as well, which had an enjoyable sound.
- Centralna station was impressive as I like that Communist-era architecture. Entering the station from street-level (not through the subways) was quite grim, so I was surprised how modern and clean it was inside. I actually liked the recent futuristic architecture within the older design (although slightly takes away the hall-like effect of the original). I did however find the platform numbers rather confusing, i.e. having a Platform number and Track number, some of which did not make logical sense to me. I'm sure i'd get used to it after a while, but it did make me think twice. I have seen this in other European countries, but Centralna seemed more confusing to me for some reason.
- I found it interesting that there were two other stations right next to Centralna - the Scrodmiescie and Srodmiescie WKD stations. The former had interesting 1940s architecture, and still had the old-fashioned flappy destination boards (i'm sure most of you will know their technical name!).
- It was great to see the train fleet looking so modern (especially in one of the former Soviet satellite countries), but the enthusiast in me was hoping to see some older stock, like i've seen in other parts of Central/Eastern Europe. I don't think I saw any of the EN57 units, but I think I may have seen a few heavily modernised examples. My only non-Metro train ride on the trip was the S2 train from Scrodmiescie to Chopin Airport (we caught the bus in the other direction, which took a similar amount of time), which I was impressed with.
- I am used to cheap transport in this part of Europe, but it still surprised me how cheap it was in Warsaw. We bought a 72-hour ticket for Zone 1. Zone 1 covers the vast majority of Warsaw, including the Chopin Airport, and enables travel on the local trains, Metro, bus and tram, for just 32 Zloty (which is about £7!!). Great value!
- For the non-railway/bus/tram stuff, Warsaw was very interesting. The re-built Old Town was fascinating, as well as the more modern central area. There are lots of excellent museums. As well as the railway museum, we went to the Polish Army Museum (another Communist throwback!), where there was a huge amount of tanks, helicopters, jets etc, and thats before you get inside the building. There was also the fascinating Warsaw Uprising Museum.
- It was also my first flight using London Luton Airport. The airport seems to have quite a bad reputation, but I had no problems at all - I was quite pleased with it actually. They seem to have moderised a lot of it recently (and still in the process), and it felt modern, clean and not cramped. Good food facilities, and quick through security. I preferred it to Gatwick. It was a bit annoying that the railway station is not directly outside the airport, and you have to use the shuttle bus (every 10 mins). But, the bus was no hassle at all, and seemed very well organised by Go-Ahead London. Annoyingly, from an enthusiasts point-of-view, I was on the ex-London Citaros in both directions, and did not get a ride on the ex-First FTR bendy-buses (which, I believe are the only 'FTR' vehicles not owned by First). I could of course have waited for one, but I just wanted to get home. Interestingly, concessionary pass holders can also use the service. The roadside ticket-sellers scan it on their hand-held machines and issue a ticket. And for those that are unaware, by getting a train ticket to 'Luton Airport' rather than 'Luton Airport Parkway', the train ticket includes the bus journey.
