Zakopane 2023-08-24
Zakopane railway station.
Geographic coordinates 49.301N 19.963E.
Zakopane railway station.
During over 120 years, the station in Zakopane was rebuilt three times. In the period 1937 - 1939 the Zakopane railway station was expanded. The designer was engineer Zenon Thienel. The last renovation was carried out in the period 2016 - 2021. The station buildings have been thoroughly renovated, from the basements to the roofs. The main building of the station was renovated and divided into a railway station and a bus station. The building has a brand new waiting room for passengers, luggage storage and ticket offices as well as toilets in the basement level.
The building of the railway clinic was renovated. The layout of the rooms inside has been slightly changed. A Tourist Information Center and a media library, exhibition rooms and a club room were installed there. Medioteka is a facility where you can use a wide range of books, multimedia and Internet access. There will be a restaurant and a cafe. The renovation cost about PLN 40 million, including PLN 15 million from EU funds.
The new facility will be a multi-storey car park located at the station platforms. The first step was tree felling. The expected date of commissioning the car park is 2024. In the plans, the car park will have 150 parking spaces and a grocery store. In connection with these works, in 2021, the wooden gate to the platforms with the neon inscription "PKP Zakopane" and the neighboring stands and shops were dismantled. The famous neon sign and gate were built for the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1968. A new entrance gate is planned, where the new neon "PKP Zakopane" will return. As for the neon "PKP Zakopane" itself, it stopped shining in the 90s. The residents collected donations and the neon was renovated in 2015.
The layout of the surrounding streets and the former bus station were rebuilt. In the summer season of 2021, the station served up to 2,000 passengers per day. In 2021, the Kraków-Zakopane train took 3.5 hours.
In March 2022, PKP again suspended the running of trains to the PKP Zakopane station. We managed to obtain funds for the renovation of platforms (extension for large trains), tracks and electric traction. The platform shelters will also be rebuilt. Therefore, the entire station plain was fenced off and renovation work began. In order not to stop rail traffic at the Spyrkówka station (InterCity staging tracks), it has been adapted to serve passenger trains. The distance between the stations is 1,500 m. Public transport to the temporary station is planned. The temporary Spyrkówka station will operate until September 2023. All renovation works on line No. 99 are to shorten the travel time of passenger trains to 2.5 hours.
Renovation of the Zakopane railway station.
In March 2022, the next stage of the renovation of the Zakopane railway station was started. This time, the reconstruction of the station level began. The old track system has been completely dismantled. Old platforms with shelters have been removed. The traction network has been dismantled.
The plan is to build 4 platforms. Single-edge platform 1, from the side of the station. Platforms 2 and 3 are island platforms. Platform 4 to single edge platform. The platforms will be of different lengths due to the limited area. All tracks will be electrified. Access to the platforms will be from the Armii Krajowej roundabout, as it has been so far. There will be no tunnel or footbridge over the tracks.
In August 2023, the platform edges were already concreted. The platform surfaces have already been installed. Tracks and turnouts have already been laid. The new tracks, compared to the old ones, were lowered by about 1 m to maintain the level of the platforms, pavements and roadways, and the platforms were of the high type.
The planned cost of the reconstruction is PLN 90 million. The renovation will be completed in spring 2024. The general renovation of the station level did not stop the traffic of passenger trains to Zakopane. The trains stopped at the temporary Spyrkówka station, about 1,500 m before the Zakopane station.
Written by Karol Placha Hetman