The ''Berlin-Warszawa-Express'' (BWE) is a cross-border train service that connects

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

via

Frankfurt (Oder) Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (, ; Central Marchian: ''Frankfort an de Oder,'' ) is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Brandenburg after Potsdam, Cottbus and Brandenburg an der Havel. With around 58,000 inh ...

, operated jointly by

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

(

DB Fernverkehr DB Fernverkehr AG (, "DB Long-Distance Traffic") is a semi-independent division of Deutsche Bahn that operates long-distance passenger trains in Germany. It was founded in 1999 in the second stage of the privatisation of Deutsche Bahn, under the ...

) and

Polish State Railways The Polish State Railways ( , abbr.: PKP S.A.) is a Polish state-owned holding company (legally a sole-shareholder company of the State Treasury) comprising the rail transport holdings of the country's formerly dominant namesake railway oper ...

(

PKP Intercity PKP Intercity is the subsidiary of the PKP Group responsible for long-distance rail passenger transport in Poland. It operates around 350 trains daily, connecting large agglomerations and smaller towns in Poland. It offers its services under ...

). The service, classed as

EuroCity EuroCity (EC) is an international Train categories in Europe, train category and brand for European inter-city rail, inter-city trains that cross international borders and meet criteria covering comfort, speed, food service, and cleanliness. E ...

, runs four times per day in each direction, with the services given the

numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

40–47. Total journey time is 4 hours, 50 minutes.

History

The ''Berlin-Warszawa-Express'' brand began in 2002, replacing the names of individual services which had been added to the

network over the previous decade. There were four pairs of services (EC 40–47) linking Berlin Zoologischer Garten and Warsaw Wschodnia, plus a fifth (48/49), which only ran from Berlin to

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

, and as such didn't take the BWE name. This additional service was dropped in 2004, but restored in 2007, and since 2012, continues from Poznań to

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

and

Gdynia Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...

, under the name ''Berlin-Gdynia Express''. The service began to serve

Berlin Hauptbahnhof Berlin Hauptbahnhof () (English: Berlin Central Station) is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It came into full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, ...

after its opening in 2006, no longer serving Berlin Zoo.

Rolling stock

Each train is six coaches long, using specially branded carriages provided by both DB and PKP - the livery is white, as per DB Intercity, but with a dark blue stripe instead of the normal red. Four of them (three full 2nd class and handicap car) are provided by PKP, Restaurant/1st class and first class are delivered by DB. Since December 2010 the train has been hauled by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

EuroSprinter The EuroSprinter family of electric locomotives is a modular concept of locomotives for the European market built by Siemens Mobility. The internal Siemens product name is ES 64, with ES for EuroSprinter and the number 64 indicating the 6,400 ...

(ES 64) locomotives, provided by PKP and known in Poland as Class EU 44 ''Husarz''. Prior to this the DB Class 180 was the most common traction, with Class 186 and Class 232 seen on occasion. In 2016, carriages are mainly provided by PKP Intercity, only restaurant carriage is provided by Deutsche Bahn. By 2017, all German restaurant carriages were returned to Deutsche Bahn. All carriages are provided by PKP Intercity.

Potential Improvements

Plans for the Polish Y High Speed Line include a route from Poznan to Warsaw, which follows the Berlin-Warszawa Express. Later phases include plans to extend to Berlin.

Summary of services

References

* * {{EuroCity trains EuroCity Named passenger trains of Germany Named passenger trains of Poland Railway services introduced in 2002

History

Rolling stock

Potential Improvements

Summary of services

See also

References