Warszawa Śródmieście railway station explained

Warszawa Śródmieście
Style:PKP
Coordinates:52.2294°N 21.0078°W
Address:Śródmieście, Warsaw, Masovian
Poland
Line:Warsaw Cross-City Line
Tracks:2
Platforms:3
Start:1949
(rebuilt 1955–1963)
Services Collapsible:yes
Other: Warszawa Centralna
Centrum
Warszawa Śródmieście WKD

Warszawa Śródmieście railway station (Polish pronunciation:) is a railway station in Warsaw, Poland, in the district of Śródmieście. The station serves the suburban (southern) tracks of the Warsaw Cross-City Line and is used by regional trains run by Koleje Mazowieckie (KM) and Szybka Kolej Miejska (SKM). There are two side platforms and one island platform serving two tracks, all located in a tunnel.

It was built on the principle of the Spanish solution, whereas the centre platform would be using for the arriving passengers only and the side platforms for departing passengers only. The separation was enforced by access controls to the centre platform (discontinued in 1960s), location of ticket offices next to side platforms only, and opening trains' doors on the centre platform side first and on the side platform side with a delay. The separation was in operation until the 1980s.

History

The first station with this name opened in 1949 in a cutting (now covered) on the Warsaw Cross-City Line between Marchlewskiego (currently Jana Pawła II) and Emilii Plater streets, a few hundred meters to the west of the current location and roughly on the site of the former Vienna station (pl). It had two side platforms and a simple wooden station building on the street level. It served both suburban and long-distance trains.

The present structure was built between 1955 and 1963, based on the designs of architects and Piotr Szymaniak (overground portion) and Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts artists and alumni Wojciech Fangor, Jerzy Sołtan,, Wiktor Gessler, Adolf Szczepiński, Bogusław Smyrski and (underground portion). The overground part consists of two rectangular buildings without any facilities, being effectively oversized shelters for staircases leading to the platforms, ticket offices, etc. The station underwent a refurbishment in 2006–07.

Connections

The station offers convenient ground-level transfers to the nearby Centrum metro station as well as a large number of trams and buses. The station is connected by an underground pedestrian passage to Warszawa Centralna, which serves long-distance trains, and Warszawa Śródmieście WKD, which serves Warszawska Kolej Dojazdowa trains.