Warsaw West Station: Then & Now | Poland Railway History

Passengers in the tunnel – this is how you waited for the train

Anyone who hasn’t waited for a train at the Warszawa Zachodnia station before the reconstruction doesn’t know life; He tried, standing in the tunnel near the bundt stand, to understand the announcements from the loudspeakers and to catch which platform his train would enter or what the ticket clerk was saying to us. Who hasn’t reached the top of steep stairs with a heavy suitcase by climbing to the platform? Who didn’t wander between the platforms or leave the station in a direction where there was no Warsaw, but almost open fields. Who didn’t get wet on the platform, with the only consolation being a spectacular view of the Warsaw skyline. Yes, this is what one of the busiest railway stations in the country looked like a few years ago.

The West Railway Station has been talked about critically in Warsaw for years, mainly referring to the indolence of railway workers. Meanwhile, the problem is much broader. This is a real Gordian knot in which the competences of various public institutions are intertwined – wrote Grzegorz Stiasny for Architektura-murator a few years ago.

Warszawa Zachodnia, the station with the highest traffic intensity in Poland

Because indeed – Warszawa Zachodnia is the station with the highest passenger train traffic in the country and the largest railway junction in Poland in terms of the number of trains running. On average, about 1,000 agglomeration, regional, long-distance national and international passenger trains pass through the station every day – wrote Anna Dziedzic for Architektura – murator in a material about the spectacular transformation of the Warszawa Zachodnia station.

Approximately 100,000 people use it on weekdays. According to PKP PLK estimates, this number is expected to double in 2030. Therefore, it was necessary to adapt the infrastructure of this facility to higher capacity and greater comfort of passengers using this place.

When in November 2025, after many years, the rebuilt Warszawa Zachodnia station was finally officially opened to passengers, we briefly recall its history.

A short history of the Warszawa Zachodnia station

The station was built before the war, during the construction of the line and the cross-town bridge (1919-1933). As the authors of the website siskom.waw.pl remind us, during World War II, the nearby tunnels may have housed crematoria of the KL Warschau concentration camp existing in the capital. During the Warsaw Uprising and after its fall, the Germans transported Warsaw residents from this station to the camps in Pruszków and Ursus.

After the war, the station did not develop and played a secondary role. Only in the 1970s were the platforms connected with an underground tunnel to the WKD (Warsaw Commuter Railway) stop, and in 1980 they were integrated with the Bus Station. Currently, the condition of both the railway and bus stations leaves much to be desired. This is one of the most neglected stations in Poland – we read on the website.

The most famous temporary railway station in the country

Yes, because Warszawa Zachodnia, where many passengers going to the capital get off and where they change to their trains, e.g. from the train from Okęcie airport, was still temporary.

In 2020, the industry portal Railway Market even recognized that Warszawa Zachodnia is the most famous temporary station in Warsaw.

Even today, you can easily see temporary elements dating back to the mid-1930s. Starting from walls, platform slabs, through passenger tunnels, and ending with the small architecture of pillars supporting rain canopies over the exits to the platforms (they are also similar at the Eastern Railway Station). In fact, they are slowly approaching the concept of a railway architectural monument – comment the authors of this material.

Reconstruction plans and construction of the bus station in the 1980s.

Although in the 1960s (April 1965) a competition was announced for the development of the Western Railway Station area, it did not help much. The plan was that the existing facilities would be rebuilt, a bus station would be built next to it and a large communication hub with a road tunnel under the railway tracks and a tunnel for trams would be built.

– Looking at the plans of the station itself and its surroundings, the creators “swam.” A large commercial and service complex with hotels, shops and bus terminals for public transport was to be built on the Avenue side. The station, connected by numerous tunnels and flyovers that were supposed to facilitate passenger traffic, was to be an example of the future understanding of the essence of what a communication hub in the entire city transport system actually is and what it should be – we read on the website ryb-kolejowy.pl. – In 1971, an impressive model of the future station was presented, which, in addition to the daily service of over 1,000 PKS buses and approximately 800 PKP trains, was also supposed to serve light helicopters.

Yes, construction began in 1972 and was supposed to end in 1975, but it failed. Ultimately, in 1980, only the bus station was opened. And it still looks almost the same today as it did 40 years ago. A passenger who gets off at the brand new railway station and goes to catch a bus literally goes back in time to the 1990s. Przemysław Zańko-Gulczyński wrote about it in our article entitled The ugliest station in Warsaw.

Since it opened in 1980, it has never undergone a major renovation. Only ad hoc renovations were carried out, but it is clear to the naked eye that this was not enough. Just look into the pedestrian tunnel under the station – closed premises are haunted by empty windows, and some passages are blocked by metal barriers. For example, you can’t go from the underground directly to the bus platforms, although tunnels and stairs still exist – describes editor Zańko-Gulczyński.

Ultimately, the obsolete facility is to disappear and a completely new station will be built in its place. For now, however, we have a new railway station and an old bus station. See what it looks like.

Bus station at the Warszawa Zachodnia station. Photos