The Seaside Narrow Gauge Railway

In 2001 the Polish state railways decided to get rid of the metre-gauge line behind the Baltic resorts west of Kołobrzeg, and buyers came forward for what was left of it. The railway's own history says one offer came from as far away as Kenya. It was turned down. On 18 March 2002 the commune of Rewal, a strip of seaside villages with fewer than 3,500 residents, decided to take the line on instead, and on 29 May 2002 its trains ran again as the commune's property.

The commune still owns the Nadmorska Kolej Wąskotorowa, the Seaside Narrow Gauge Railway, through a company it set up in 2013. Its 39.4 kilometres run from the depot town of Gryfice through farmland and old forest to Trzęsacz, then along the cliffs to Pogorzelica. That is about a fifth of a network that once covered some 300 kilometres of Western Pomerania. Since the rescue the line has usually carried 150,000 to 160,000 passengers a year, and in 2021 a record 175,000, enough to make it the busiest narrow-gauge railway in Poland in most years.

The train is a short rake of brown coaches behind a Romanian-built Lxd2 diesel. One train a day comes out from Gryfice in the morning and goes back in the evening; in between it shuttles along the coast past a medieval church that has mostly fallen into the sea, a lighthouse of 1866, and a reed-fringed lake between the villages.

The day's only through train leaves Gryfice Wąskotorowe at 08:40. The station is beside the town's bus station, and behind it stands the depot, still the railway's workshop, and the open-air display of the National Museum in Szczecin, where steam engines and coaches from the old network are kept at the platforms.

Through the farmland

For the first thirty kilometres the train is in no hurry. The section from Gryfice to Trzęsacz was left out of the rebuilding of 2011–14, and the railway points out that its rails and sleepers are still largely of an earlier era. The line wanders north through old mixed forest, then across fields and pastures by way of Popiele, Rybokarty, with its manor of the late eighteenth century, Karnice and Dreżewo, which has a neo-Gothic palace. The railway says deer and other forest animals are often seen from the windows.

Onto the coast

At Trzęsacz, on the fifteenth meridian, the line reaches the sea and the rebuilt coastal section begins: 9.9 kilometres of new track, new platforms with lamps in the old style, and three new station buildings, at Trzęsacz, Śliwin and Niechorze Latarnia. The station buildings at Rewal and Pogorzelica, from the line's early years, were restored. The one in the centre of Niechorze could not be saved because its foundations had failed.

Niechorze Latarnia is the stop for the lighthouse. After Niechorze the line turns along the shore of Liwia Łuża, a shallow lake cut off from the sea by a sand bar, and crosses the canal that links it to the Baltic on a low bridge among the reeds. The line ends at Pogorzelica, a village of pine woods behind a wide beach.

At each end of the coastal section the locomotive runs round its train, and the shuttle then works back and forth between Trzęsacz and Pogorzelica until the evening, when it returns to Gryfice.

The train

The trains are hauled by Lxd2 diesels, a type built in Romania by FAUR from 1964 to 1990. The state railways bought 29 for the metre gauge, and they reached this line in 1978. Two were given a general overhaul in the rebuilding, together with the coaches, which were fitted with heating and toilets. They are painted maroon with a gold stripe. An MBxd2 railcar from the same factory also works the line. The railway's steam locomotive, a Px48 built at Chrzanów in 1950, is out of use while it is repaired.

Some trains include a bicycle wagon, an open flat car with racks. A bicycle travels for 17 zł.

In the regular season, from the first weekend of May to the end of September, trains run every day. The through train leaves Gryfice at 08:40, makes five round trips on the coast between Trzęsacz and Pogorzelica, and leaves Pogorzelica for Gryfice at 17:45, arriving at 19:40. The whole run from Gryfice to Pogorzelica takes 1 hour 54; the coastal section, 34 minutes.

Autumn and winter 2026–27

Out of season the railway runs a shorter timetable on selected days. The remaining days to 28 February 2027 are 11 November; 27–29 November; 5–6 December; 26 December to 3 January; 16, 23, 30 and 31 January; and 6, 13, 20 and 27 February.

Every train also stops at Śliwin, Niechorze and Pogorzelica Sandra, and the through trains at Popiele, Rybokarty, Niedźwiedziska, Modlimowo, Paprotno and Dreżewo.

From the operator's autumn–winter 2026–27 timetable and calendar (opens in a new tab), valid to 28 February 2027, as of November 2026. The 2027 summer times are not yet published. The railway answers on +48 798 627 070.

Getting there

Gryfice's narrow-gauge station is next to the bus station, with free parking, and the town has trains from the direction of Szczecin and Kołobrzeg. The railway suggests starting at Trzęsacz if you come from the west, from Świnoujście or Międzyzdroje, and at Pogorzelica if you come from Kołobrzeg; both have free car parks.

Tickets are sold by the conductor on the train, by card or in cash, and in summer also at the ticket offices in Trzęsacz, Rewal and Pogorzelica. Seats cannot be reserved. There is one fare for the whole route, however far you go: 38 zł one way and 48 zł return. You may break the journey and continue on a later train in the same direction, and a ticket is valid only on the day it is bought.

Children under 5 travel free. A day ticket covers every train for 130 zł, and a promotional fare of 36 zł one way and 42 zł return covers the first train from Gryfice and the last one back. From the operator's fare table in force from 24 April to 31 December 2026, as of November 2026.

No rail pass covers this railway. Interrail's table of railway companies lists PKP Intercity, POLREGIO and the regional operators for Poland, and no narrow-gauge line. Everyone pays the ordinary fare.

A pass can help you reach Gryfice, which has standard-gauge trains from the direction of Szczecin and Kołobrzeg. POLREGIO's regional trains are covered by a Global Pass or a Poland Pass and need no reservation.

For this trip alone a pass is not worth buying, since the single fare for the whole route is 38 zł and a day ticket 130 zł.

Checked November 2026 against Interrail's table of railway companies (opens in a new tab), last updated 21 October 2026, and the railway's fares (opens in a new tab).

The railway's own advice is that every sight on the coast is a few minutes' walk from one of its stations, and a flat-fare ticket lets you get off and catch a later train on.

Gryfice suits the morning train from the depot; Pogorzelica puts you at the coastal end of the line, a walk from the beach.

Planning this trip and stuck on something, or spotted a time, fare or detail that has changed? Send us a message about The Seaside Narrow Gauge Railway. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.