The Central Trunk Line

The fastest trains from Warsaw to Kraków spend most of the journey on the Centralna Magistrala Kolejowa, the Central Trunk Line: 224 kilometres of double track laid across central Poland in the 1970s. Its curves have a radius of 4,000 metres and its tracks are set wide apart, because it was designed from the start for passenger trains at up to 250 km/h.

No timetabled train has run at that speed yet. For its first years the line carried mostly coal. An Italian Pendolino on trial touched 250.1 km/h here in 1994, and PKP Intercity's own Pendolinos, delivered ready for 250, reached 293 km/h on test in 2013. In service they were cleared for 200 from December 2014, on part of the line.

Today they are held to 160 km/h over nearly all of it, while the old signalling is switched off and its replacement installed. Poland plans to go straight to 250 with the timetable of December 2027, 56 years after the line was designed.

Trains leave Warszawa Centralna from platforms below the street and run west through Warszawa Zachodnia on the old Warsaw–Vienna railway, whose first section reached Grodzisk in 1845. The Central Trunk Line begins at Grodzisk Mazowiecki. It keeps to the north side of the old line as far as Jaktorów, climbs over it and turns south, and from there the fastest trains have no stop until Kraków.

The long run south

What follows is about two hours of fields and pine woods. The line crosses the Pilica between Szeligi and Idzikowice and carries on past Opoczno and Włoszczowa on long, gentle curves, with most roads taken over or under it on bridges. A window seat shows the geometry better than any speedometer. There are only eleven stations in 224 kilometres, and the fastest trains call at none of them.

Three of the eleven handle passengers: Opoczno Południe, Włoszczowa Północ and Zawiercie at the far end. The first two were added decades after the line opened, cut into a railway planned without them.

Why it was built

The plan was freight. Coal from Upper Silesia was to go north to the Baltic ports on a new double track, and the line was meant to continue beyond Warsaw to Gdańsk. The economic crisis of the 1970s stopped it at Grodzisk. Line number 5 in the national register is still reserved for the northern half, which was never built. In 1980 the line carried 73 freight trains a day and four passenger trains.

Passengers came later: two express pairs from June 1984, the Górnik and the Krakus, at 140 km/h, the fastest scheduled running Poland had seen. Four years on the same trains reached 160.

The last hour

Kraków trains leave the trunk line at Psary, follow a short link through Starzyny to Kozłów, and join the older line south. That section, opened through to Kraków only in 1934, runs by Miechów and across the rolling farmland around Słomniki, and comes into Kraków Główny from the north.

The train

Class ED250 is an Alstom New Pendolino of seven cars, built at Savigliano in Italy for PKP Intercity. Twenty were delivered and they carry the Express Intercity Premium brand. They do not tilt, the tender having dropped that requirement. The fleet took its first passengers on 14 December 2014, and in 2015 the Supreme Audit Office called the purchase economically unjustified, because the track and power supply were not ready for what the trains could do.

A Pendolino reached 253 km/h on the line on the night of 17 to 18 August 2026, testing the digital radio network the new signalling depends on. The infrastructure ministry told parliament in June 2026 that the limit will go straight to 250 km/h on about 180 kilometres of line, without first going back to 200, and that the forecast for Warsaw to Kraków at that speed is 1 hour 56.

PKP Intercity runs the expresses. Pendolino trains (category EIP) take between 2 hours 24 and 2 hours 39 from Warsaw to Kraków, most of them leaving at or near 40 minutes past the hour, and the journey back is much the same. Trains run all year.

Warsaw to Kraków

Kraków to Warsaw

The Pendolinos and the Tatry run without a stop between Warszawa Zachodnia and Kraków. IC 1312 calls at Opoczno Południe, Włoszczowa Północ and Miechów. Trains timed well over three hours go another way, such as IC 1320 Karłowicz, which runs by Kielce and takes 3 hours 52. Check the dates of any one train before travelling, as some do not run every day.

The times shown are for Tuesday 10 November 2026. A new timetable begins on 13 December 2026, and PKP Intercity's own station lists run only to 12 December. Times will change when the line is cleared for higher speeds.

As of November 2026, from PKP Intercity's (opens in a new tab) station lists and the official PKP PLK timetable data shown by EuroPodróże.

Tickets for PKP Intercity's expresses are bought on its own site or app, and every single comes with a reserved seat. Fares change with the train and with how early you book: on 10 November 2026 the cheapest Pendolino seats between Warsaw and Kraków ranged from 87 zł to 188 zł, with the first and last trains of the day the cheapest.

The slower IC and TLK trains cost far less, from about 28 zł, but check that the one you pick takes the Central Trunk Line. Fares as of November 2026.

Interrail and Eurail passes are valid on PKP Intercity's EIP, EIC, IC and TLK trains, on a Global Pass or a Poland Pass. On a Pendolino a seat reservation is compulsory and costs 43 zł: buy it before boarding, because without one a pass holder is treated as having no valid ticket. On EIC and most other IC and TLK trains a reservation is optional at 3 zł, and worth having, because a passenger with a reserved seat can claim yours.

For this trip alone a pass is not worth buying: an early Pendolino single, from 87 zł, costs only 44 zł more than the compulsory reservation alone. A pass pays only when Warsaw and Kraków are two stops on a longer journey through Poland.

Checked November 2026 against PKP Intercity's Interrail guide (opens in a new tab) of March 2026.

Warsaw and Kraków are the reasons to take this train, and both reward more than a day. For Kraków's old centre and Wawel, see the Kraków to Zakopane page; the cards here cover what it leaves out.

Both of these are within walking distance of the station at their end of the line.

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