Łódź Fabryczna Railway Station

New Łódź-Fabryczna train station

Station concourse after the renovation

Łódź Fabryczna before the renovation

Bydgostia in the old Fabryczna railway station

Łódź Fabryczna is a train station in the center of the city of Łódź in Poland , at Sałacińskiego 1 Square . Along with the Łódź Kaliska train station, it is the city's most important train station. In October 2011 the original terminus station was closed in order to be able to convert it into an underground through station .

In front of the main building was the central bus station , where international bus services - Państwowa Komunikacja Samochodowa and Polski Express buses - were handled. With the renovation of the train station, the underground bus station was also rebuilt. From Łódź Fabryczna there are direct bus connections to Warsaw , Krakow , Bielsko-Biała , Olsztyn and Koluszki .

There were several ticket offices in the main hall of the old station building; ticket machines did not exist before the renovation. On the route between Warsaw Central Station and Łódź Fabryczna, electric multiple units of the type ED74 "Bydgostia" from the Bydgoszcz- based company PESA run every hour and take 100 minutes.

history

With the growth of Łódź, the connection to the rail network became more and more important. The industrialists therefore pushed for the construction of a branch line into the city and thus a connection to the Vienna – Warsaw route, which, among other things, enabled the supply of hard coal for the machine industry. Karl Scheibler in particular made an effort. Work on the station began on September 1, 1865, after the Russian Tsar Alexander II had given permission to build it.

The rails connected the city with Koluszki . The route was used for the first time on November 1, 1865, and on November 10, 1865 a banquet was held on the occasion of the opening, to which the Russian Governor General Count von Berg also appeared. The ceremonial handover for the passengers took place on June 1st of the following year, although at that time there was no station building. The importance of the station became apparent right from the start. In 1866 5,000 tons of goods and 46,000 passengers were transported. Until 1868 the trains stopped at ul. Krótka , the current location of Dom Kultury . In 1868 the station building was built according to plans by the architect Adolf Schimmelpfennig . The use of the station increased rapidly, reaching 50,000 tons of goods and almost 250,000 passengers by 1890.

After the occupation of Łódź and the renaming to Litzmannstadt , the name of the station was changed to Litzmannstadt Mitte . From 1945 the station was named Łódź Fabryczna .

Reconstruction of the station

Construction of the new station, December 2014

In November 2010, the Polskie Koleje Państwowe published a list of five consortia that were invited to submit an offer to convert the station into an underground station. The cost was estimated at 1.9 billion zlotys. The offers were published in April 2011. The offers ranged from 1.541 billion zloty (about 376 million euro) and 2.345 billion zlotys (about 572 million euros). The consortium of companies Torpol, Astaldi , INTERCOR and Przedsiębiorstwo Budowy Dróg i Mostów was awarded the contract for 1.759 billion zloty (approx. 429 million euros) in August 2011. The last train for the time being left on October 15, 2011. The connections of the station will be diverted via the stations Łódź Kaliska , Chojny and Widzew .

The station was converted into an underground through station. A connection to Kaliska train station is to be established later. The renovation is part of a planned high-speed line.

The conversion took place as follows:

2011: Closure of the train station and preparation of the construction site.
2012: Dismantling of the tracks, earthworks, construction of the tunnels and relocation of the networks underground
2013: Continuation of the underground construction work, construction or renovation of the roads
2014: Construction of the train station and connection to local public transport
December 2016 (originally planned for 2015): Completion and opening of the station