Last weekend lucky citizens of the Tri-City (Trójmiasto – Gdańsk, Sopot, Gdynia) area were able to enjoy their first ride on the new Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway (PKM) train. The PKM Open Day attracted thousands of people curious to see and photograph the new trains, and take a ride to the Lech Wałęsa Airport.

PKM train being built at PESA Bydgoszcz

PKM train being built at PESA Bydgoszcz

Tomorrow, on September 1st, at 3.40am, the first regular PKM train will take off from the Gdańsk Główny station, and at 3.43am another will take off from Gdynia Główna. The citizens of Sopot, in order to get to the airport, will have to take the SKM and change in Gdynia or Wrzeszcz. It is an important development, and the citizens of Trójmiasto are quite excited. The ride to the airport will take about 20 minutes from Gdańsk Wrzeszcz. Until now there were only a couple of bus lines and a very jammed main road.

SEE ALSO: Polish railways early years, the PESA story starting in 1851

The passengers who were lucky to get a free ticket on the weekend saw Gdańsk from a new perspective, and at times were not able to say where exactly they were. They saw, among others, two water reservoirs in Kiełpinek and Jasień, and passed under the Tri-City ring road (Obwodnica).

How was it? Fantastic. Nothing’s missing. The train still smells like new, it is clean, and there’s a lot of space inside, and it’s quiet – the passengers said.

The voivodship invested more than a billion złoty, out of which 618 mln came from the EU. The new line is 20km long, and it’s the first totally new railway line since the 70s, and the first one to be funded by a voivodship government. For now, the trains will only go to the airport, both from Gdańsk and Gdynia, but starting October 1st it will be possible to get to Kartuzy and Kościerzyna as well.

 
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