Just for the record – quite possibly today
morning we witnessed the last gasp of winter in Warsaw. After several days of
spring-like weather, last night brought frost and light dusting of snow. Skies
cleared up around 8 a.m. and all the snow disappeared by midday. Next week
temperature is foreseen to shoot up to nearly +20C. Roll on spring!
Again, a belated post, partly compiled
almost two weeks ago, shortly after the opening of the second underground line,
slightly updated and extended today.
Making it ot the anything but grand opening of the second
underground line two weeks ago was out of question, so I tried it out the next
day, on Monday morning. I was not the only one to document (photos by Szajsung) the first ride – see a much broader coverage by Michael (the fellow blogger
visited all stations east of Świętokrzyska).
To the right – one of passages between the
first and the second line on Świętokrzyska station. When first using this link,
I was unaware of the existence of another far more convenient passage between
the lines, which is faster, does not require passengers to go through ticket
gates and on top is well-hidden. Despite this one flaw, I have to admit
generally the signage is up to the mark in the stations of second underground
line.
I took a train to the western end of the
line, to Rondo Daszyńskiego station. This formerly industrial part of Warsaw is
rapidly turning into a business district with hundreds thousands square metres
of office space in use and under construction. The underground trains will
definitely facilitate transport for thousand of corpo-workers having to get
here and from here, making it much friendlier location to work than ghastly
Służewiec Przemysłowy. I took the snap just from the entrance to the station,
however to properly depict the modern office-districts landscape, I should have
taken the photo from the south-eastern corner of Rondo Daszyńskiego.
The east-bound carriages running in the
morning from Rondo Daszyńskiego were nearly empty. It does not imply that
second underground line runs idle. According to recently published statistics
its trains carry on average 106,701 passengers per day (vs. roughly half a
million taking the first, much longer line). Besides, it takes time before
passengers change their habits and get convinced to the fastest possible way of
moving around town.
As pointed up by many, on the first working
day most escalators on newly opened Rondo ONZ station were broken down. True,
this was a nuisance, however technical crews swiftly mended the machinery and
during the subsequent two weeks I did not notice a single technical defect.
When it comes to technicalities, I also noticed many passengers encountered
problems handling new glass-made ticket gates (seemingly so simple to use).
Fortunately, the transport authority envisaged such situations and sent several
assistants to help passengers find their way in newly opened facilities. I only
wonder how long before the more complicated gates begin to pack up since their
technical complexity and thus potential for defects is much higher than in old
gates on first line stations.
To the right – view towards the station
entrance to the station, photo taken in the vicinity of Rondo ONZ. For many
corpo-workers keeping late hours in Rondo 1 and other nearby office buildings
the underground trains should mean commuting improvement. From my perspective,
the time saved thanks to it is less than five minutes. Compared to the previous
route, i.e. taking a tram between Metro Pole Mokotowskie and Rondo ONZ (six
stops), riding the underground does not requite waiting on the traffic light to
cross two streets on Rondo ONZ, moreover the underground is not halted by
traffic lights on intersections along the way. Having to swing east and change
trains, rather than moving slower, but straight ahead, takes the gloss of
smoother rides by underground. I will defnitely appreciate the underground
during inclement or extreme weather. Taking a shelter will be preferable to
being exposed to over +25C heat, less than -10C chill, downpours or heavy snow.
Now looking forward to opening the rebuilt
park and ride facility near Metro Stokłosy. The huge car park for almost 400
cars, 100 bikes and bus terminus have been finished a few weeks ago and since
then have been waiting for better days, fenced off from hundreds of potential
users. In early February I ventured there to see the development had been
completed and asked a security guard whether he knew the opening date. He only
shrugged his shoulders and shared my discontent with the fact no one can use the
new car park. From what I heard on the radio last week, the general contractor
is to put all finishing touches and fix minor glitches by the end of March and
then technical inspections are to set about. Feasible opening date – second
week of April (the one after Easter.)
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