Private rail operator mulling Toruń-Berlin link

Spokeswoman Joanna Parzniewska from Arriva RP confirmed the plans on Monday, saying that the company is launch the route with the help of municipal authorities of cities which lie on the route.

Currently, the link “is in the planning and project phase”, although Arriva RP hopes to commence services from mid-December along with the seasonal rail timetable change.

Starting off in Toruń, the link would take in the cities of Bydgoszcz, Piła, Krzyż Wielkopolski, Gorzów Wielkopolski and Kostrzyn. However, a complete list of stations on the route is still in the pipeline.

Arriva RP hopes that the journey time between Toruń and Berlin will last some six hours, competing with journey times made by car.

One of the cities interested in the link is Piła, western Poland. “Mayor Piotr Głowiski has been lobbying for the link for some months,” spokeswoman for Piła council Dorota Semenov said.

“There have been meetings with the operator as well as representatives from municipalities which are drafting the ‘TransOderana’ project,” Semenov added.

The TransOderana project is being carried out the auspices of an EU ‘European grouping of territorial cooperation’ (EGTC) programme which aims to increase connectivity between Polish and German border regions.

The project takes in the rail line linking Berlin, Gorzów and Piła, the latter of which is pushing for the new connection.

Piła used to have a connection with Berlin up until 2009 as part of a service running from the Russian Kaliningrad exclave to the German capital. However, the route of the service was changed.

Arriva RP is a rail operator present on the Polish market since 2007, running services in the central Kujawy-Pomerania province. In 2014 it launched a commercially successful regional link between Aleksandrów Kujawski and Ciechocinek. (jb)

Source: PAP