Warszawa Centralna (official Polish name since 2019 Dworzec Centralny im. Stanisława Moniuszki), in English known as Warsaw Central Station, is the primary railway station in Warsaw, Poland. Completed in 1975, the station is located on the Warsaw Cross-City Line and features four underground island platforms with eight tracks in total. It is served by the long-distance domestic and international trains of PKP Intercity and Polregio as well as some of the regional trains operated by Koleje Mazowieckie. Adjacent to the north side of the building is a bus station that serves as the central hub for night bus lines, and Złote Tarasy shopping center.
Warszawa Centralna in 1975. Swiss monthly magazine Hochparterre rated it as "Excellent public space: the main hall of the Warszawa Centralna railway station in its original shape."[1] Railway station was registered as a historical monument of modern architecture by the provincial conservator of monuments (2019).Main hall. The futuristic mezzanine was added between 2015 and 2016.
However, the project encountered substantial problems from the very beginning. The station's design was innovative, but construction was plagued by continuous alterations to the scope of work which in turn hurt functionality and operations upon completion. These problems were partially a result of a hasty completion schedule, with the opening date set to coincide with Leonid Brezhnev's 1975 visit[2] to Warsaw. The design and construction problems necessitated immediate repairs that would continue through the 1980s. Despite the deficiencies, the structure was fairly advanced for its time and incorporated such features as automatic doors, as well as escalators and elevators for each platform. Moreover, each platform was equipped with WC, public telephones and glazed waiting rooms.[3][4]
The station was one of only a handful of public buildings in Warsaw which suffered a technical fault as a result of the millennium bug. The indicator board was switched off for approximately 24 hours on 1 January 2000 while its timing chip was replaced. In the meantime, all departures were announced over the Tannoy system. The normal practice is for only international departures to be announced in this way. The story was originally reported in Gazeta Wyborcza on 4 January 2000.
After a period of decline, a cosmetic upgrade of the station in 2010-2011 was completed in time for the Euro 2012 championships.[5] Between 2015 and 2016, a mezzanine connecting the waiting room in the west wing to the restaurants in the east wing was constructed. It has been both praised for improving the utilization of space in the main hall and criticized for its futuristic design, which clashes with the building's modernist architecture.[6] The Warsaw city government is contemplating demolishing and replacing the station, either at the same location or farther from the city center.[7] Some elements of the Warsaw press (e.g. Gazeta Wyborcza and Architektura Murator, 2012), as well as Swiss architect and journalist Werner Huber, have argued against demolition, claiming that the current Warszawa Centralna is a great example and a masterpiece of modernism in Poland.[8]
The station is fully accessible to the disabled as well as passengers with heavy luggage.[4]
Warsaw Central Station on map of the city's rail network
In January 2019, the name of the Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko was appended to Warszawa Centralna station, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth.[9]
Warszawa Śródmieście
Centrum
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