Warsaw to Krakow on Poland’s New LOW-COST Express Train! – Regiojet Poland Review

Warsaw to Krakow on Poland’s New LOW-COST Express Train! – Regiojet Poland Review

Poland’s long-distance railway network is 
currently dominated by national operator PKP Intercity, but that is about to change. 
RegioJet, the popular low-cost operator from the Czech Republic, has just entered the 
Polish market, connecting the country’s two most important cities, Krakow and Warsaw. And that’s 
just the beginning, with plans to launch even more routes all over Poland very soon. So, join 
me today as I check out the onboard experience, trying out this brand new service on the 
Polish rails to see how it stacks up against the competition. I’ll show you everything from the 
comfortable seats and the incredibly cheap onboard food options to RegioJet’s exciting expansion 
plans, but also some of the few less great things about this new service. My name is Simon 
and this is Poland’s brand new train operator. Our trip today starts at Warsaw’s Eastern Railway 
Station located well on the eastern side of the city. It’s one of the city’s most important 
railway stations with many services starting or ending their journey here. The current station 
building is from the late 1960s, and it certainly looks like it. On the inside, the station consists 
of one main hall filled with a few pop-up shops. The station is also equipped with a 
large ticket office and waiting room. There’s also plenty of other facilities 
such as luggage storage lockers as well as a food court with all the regular fast-food 
outlets. And at the end of the food court, you’ll also find a large supermarket. Luckily, 
this pretty uninspiring station won’t look like this for much longer. A similar station upgrade 
program to the one just about to be completed over at Warsaw Western Station has recently been 
announced here for the Eastern Station. Right, let’s head over to the platform 
and get ready to catch our train. I’ve traveled a lot with RegioJet previously 
on their routes over in the Czech Republic. So, I’m really excited to see what they’re 
bringing to the Polish market today. As our train still hasn’t arrived in from the 
depot, let’s instead take a closer look at some of the other train traffic at the station. Warsaw 
Eastern sees a lot of different train operators, including no fewer than four providing 
various lengths of regional and suburban services funded by different levels 
of national and regional governments. What caught my attention while I was waiting 
around was this special Pesa Gama locomotive which Koleje Mazowieckie only ever ordered 
two of alongside some matching double-decker carriages from Pesa. These trains remain 
a little bit of an oddball in the fleet, operating alongside 11 more conventional 
double-decker trains from Bombardier. In addition to the local trains, the station 
also sees a range of long-distance services, including international trains 
to and from the Czech Republic, as well as many services to all over the country 
operated by national operator PKP Intercity, including many services on board their flagship 
and premium high-speed Pendolino trains. And it’s exactly these trains RegioJet wants to compete 
against. So, let’s see how they stack up against the competition as our train is now pulling 
in from the sidings just beyond the station. Just like their operation in the Czech Republic, 
the train consists mostly of various second-hand carriages offering a total of four different 
travel classes on board. Hauling our train today is this Alstom Traxx locomotive which is 
capable of 200 km/h. While RegioJet aims to run at this speed in the future, the trains 
to Krakow remain limited to 160 for now, which I’ll get into later in the video. But 
for now, it’s time to board our train. As you can tell from the old slam doors, this is an 
older carriage, which until a couple of years ago was only found in RegioJet’s low-cost 
class. But now, these carriages have been completely overhauled on the inside with these 
stylish new seats and sold as Relax class. I’ll show you the rest of the train’s 
interior and seats in greater detail later in the video. But now we’re departing 
Warsaw’s Eastern Station on time at 14:33. Our train pulls out of the station 
now heading for the railway through the heart of the Polish capital city. 
And just a couple of moments later, we take the bridge across the Vistula 
River that flows right through the city. Just after crossing the river, 
we dive underground to take the tunnel into Warszawa Centralna 
or Central Railway Station. This is where our train picks up most of 
its passengers. And after a scheduled stop of 5 minutes, we continue back 
into the darkness below ground, eventually emerging on the other side of the city 
center, where just a couple of minutes later, our train pulls into Warszawa Zachodnia or 
Western Railway Station. This major transportation hub is currently in its last phase of complete 
reconstruction and overhaul, making it one of the most modern railway stations in Poland. We make a 
stop here for just 3 minutes before beginning our almost non-stop run to Krakow. And actually, 
our route today is quite interesting. So now, as we head out of Warsaw, let’s take a closer 
look at the path our train will be taking today. We are catching RegioJet train 1300. After our 
stops in Warsaw, our train turns to head south towards Krakow on the 347 km long route with one 
intermediate stop in Zawiercie. The total trip is scheduled to take 3 hours and 33 minutes, 
giving the train an average speed of 98 km/h. However, due to engineering works, 
RegioJet currently has to take a slightly longer route to Krakow. From 
the December 2025 timetable change, the trains will take a much more direct 
route, reducing journey times by almost 1 hour. Polish is a language that’s pretty much 
unintelligible to me. But I’m not sure even the Poles could understand what was being said with 
the quality of the speakers in this carriage. Well, anyway, our train is 
now speeding out of Warsaw, passing through many of the commuter towns 
and villages alongside the railway line. But our journey comes to an abrupt 
end as our train makes a hard brake application and eventually 
comes to a complete stop. Things are not looking good as we 
sit still on the main line getting passed by other commuter trains with the 
sound of faint sirens in the distance. Eventually, our train gets moving again, but 
only for a very short moment. Eventually, after sitting still for a couple more minutes, one of PKP Intercity’s Pendolino trains passes 
us and our train gets on the move again. But the excitement about getting going 
again is only short-lived as just a couple of minutes later, our train 
once again comes to a complete stop. So yeah, it seems like there’s quite some issues 
with either the signalling system today or some sort of incident on the line ahead of us. But 
finally, after picking up around a 15 to 20 minute delay, we get moving once again. And this time, 
our train gets back up to full line speed, ready to join the railway line towards southern Poland 
and Krakow. We are now traveling along the CMK or Central Railway Line. And while this line was 
originally built mostly to handle freight trains running through the middle of nowhere, nowadays, 
thanks to its almost dead-straight alignment, it’s being used for Poland’s fastest train services 
and receiving some major upgrades. However, we’ll have to talk more about that later as now 
the complimentary onboard service has started. All passengers in Relax class receive a 
free bottle of water and have access to complimentary coffee served by the dedicated 
carriage attendant. In addition to this, RegioJet offers an extensive buy-onboard menu 
and it’s very cheap. Today, I’ve decided to try the cheesecake and burrito. So, 
while the staff prepare my order, let’s take a closer look at the seats. 
My favorite thing about them are these huge tray tables that fold out to make an even 
larger surface. They are also incredibly sturdy, making them probably the best tray-back tables 
I’ve ever experienced to use a laptop on. Legroom is also excellent, and the seats also 
feature an adjustable footrest as well as a handy storage pocket. The seats are also equipped 
with a small bin, and in the central console, you’ll find a small table handy for smaller items, 
as well as the seat’s power outlets and USB ports. The seats themselves feature an excellent headrest 
pillow. Combine this with the seat’s ergonomic shape and well-balanced padding makes for a 
really comfortable seat. They can be enhanced even further using the recline. And I do appreciate the 
attention to detail by having the movable armrest slightly padded. Overall, these are excellent and 
among my favorite seats for a first class product and especially for the prices RegioJet charges, 
which I’ll touch a bit more on later in the video. We are now passing by PKP’s maintenance facility at Idzikowice and is that a Deutsche 
Bahn ICE 3neo sitting in the sidings? Rumours have it that works are currently ongoing 
to have these high-speed trains certified in Poland either to let Deutsche Bahn extend some 
high-speed services to Poland or give Siemens an edge in an upcoming high-speed train order 
for Poland’s future high-speed network plans. Speaking of high-speed railways in Poland, the 
CMK line we are currently traveling along used to have several 200 km/h sections, but due to 
upgrade works to the signalling system, the line is currently restricted to 160 km/h. But when 
the new signals are in place, this should become Poland’s first actual high-speed railway line 
with PKP’s Pendolinos reaching up to 250 km/h. Speaking of upgrades, these carriages could 
definitely need a new air conditioning system as after the issues with the locomotive at the 
beginning of the journey, the system broke down, making the carriage uncomfortably hot. So, 
it turned out to maybe be a bit of a mistake on my end to both get a warm burrito and a hot 
coffee alongside some cake. While the burrito was nothing special, being a bit sloppy and 
bland, the cake and coffee were both delicious. And for less than €4 in total, the value is pretty 
much unbeatable. And prices are really where RegioJet shines. On board the train, they got four 
different classes to choose from. The cheapest one is Low Cost. It’s super basic and doesn’t even 
guarantee a power outlet. But hey, prices start from just €2.10 from Warsaw to Krakow, which is 
really cheap. Next up from this is Standard class, starting from just €4. Here you can either pick 
a classic compartment carriage or one of these futuristic Astra carriages with their stylish 
leather seats and entertainment screens. Plus, you get complimentary water and coffee. 
Then there is Relax class starting from just €8.20. It comes in two versions. The 
one we are traveling in today which is actually a refurbished old low-cost carriage 
and what an upgrade they have done I must say. But there’s also an older type of carriage where 
the open-plan seats are sold as Relax class while the spacious four-person compartments 
in the same coach are Business class. Business even comes with complimentary juice 
or Prosecco and prices start from just €13.90. Throughout the train, there’s plenty of space 
for luggage and of course also toilets. These were in good condition with plenty of 
paper towels, working water and soap. Just like in the Czech Republic, the fake 
scented flower is also present alongside a clean toilet that flushed with no issue. 
Overall, this was clean and tidy. So, well done. Back at my seat, we have now almost 
completed our non-stop run on the CMK line, which is coming to an end as we now 
approach our station stop in Zawiercie. Despite our issues earlier, we have 
managed to make up the entire delay, arriving here bang on time at 16:45. Our train 
makes a brief 2-minute stop before continuing on its roundabout route to Krakow, which will 
still take us more than 75 minutes to reach despite being less than 90 km from here. The daily 
service is pretty much just a short-notice preview of what’s to come in order for RegioJet to test 
out the route and train their new Polish staff. That’s also why they’ve only been able to secure 
this rather slow path to Krakow. But that’s going to change very soon with their exciting 
expansion plans starting here in December 2025. Their expansion plans really are huge. 
From December 2025, trains between Krakow and Warsaw will increase to up to nine daily, of which 
three will continue north to Gdansk and Gdynia. A whole new route to Poznan will also launch 
with six daily round trips as well as a daily route via Katowice Airport and Ostrava to 
Prague. And a little further into the future, we might also see new routes to Berlin, Wroclaw, 
Szczecin, and Gliwice which have already been granted route access in Poland alongside 
a combined Gdansk to Prague and Vienna sleeper train which would split in Bohumin. So, 
I think it’s fair to say RegioJet’s open-access network is going to be huge across Central 
Europe if all of this becomes a reality. For the final stretch of our journey, we make 
our way in between the industrial towns between Katowice and Krakow, slowly closing in 
on our final destination. I should also mention that our train is equipped with 
free Wi-Fi, which was actually quite fast. This is a really nice feature to have when 
your journey time is extended by having to be looped just before Krakow’s main station to 
let a train with a better path go in front. So, I guess while we wait here, let me start 
summarizing the journey and my thoughts. While RegioJet is not perfect, it’s a great 
value operator that does many things really well. It’s cheap, comfortable, and does a 
great job at catering to a lot of travelers. And even if you don’t like their product, 
you should probably still be happy for their existence, as even this once-daily train has 
already caused PKP to drastically reduce their ticket prices on services departing around 
the same time. So I’m really excited to see what improvements RegioJet’s entry to the Polish 
market will bring—not just with their own trains, but also the improvements and cheaper 
fares on its competitors. In the end, our train pulls into Krakow Główny a 
couple minutes ahead of schedule after what’s been a good journey with RegioJet. 
So, what do you think of them and are you excited for their Polish expansion plans? 
Let me know in the comments down below. Thank you so much for joining me in this video 
today. If you want to see more videos like this, make sure you’re subscribed to the channel 
as I try to post a new one every Sunday. You can also follow me over on BlueSky at 
intercitysimon.com. I usually post live on my travels in real time over there, 
so it’s a great place to get a sneak peek at what videos might be coming to the 
channel in the future. Thanks for watching.

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RegioJet, the popular low-cost train company from the Czech Republic, has just entered the Polish rail market, looking to disrupt the industry, and is about to launch even more trains all over Poland! So join me in this video as we check out their product on the Polish railways and talk about their massive expansion plans and the few not so amazing things about this new service. This was a very interesting ride.

Train type: Alstom Traxx and various second hand carriages
Route: Warsaw East to Krakow Main Station
Train: RJ 1300/1
Distance: 347km
Journey time: 3h33m
Average speed: 98 km/h
Price: from 9 zl or 2.1€

00:00 Intro
00:52 Warsaw Eastern Railway Station
03:20 RegioJet is here!
04:24 Depature through Warsaw
05:47 Route Map
06:27 Broken Speaker…
06:50 Broken Train…
08:28 The CMK — Poland’s Fastest Railway (Sort of)
08:50 Complimentary Onboard Service (Relax Class)
09:15 Seat Tour (One of Europe’s BEST!)
10:15 ICE3neo in Poland?!
10:45 CMK Railway Line Upgrade Program
11:10 Broken Aircon
11:21 Food arrives! (Great value!)
11:41 Onboard Train Tour (All the classes)
13:13 Zawiercie Station
13:35 Regiojet is slow (but that will change!)
14:05 Regiojet’s HUGE Expansion plans
14:48 Final stetch to Krakow
15:16 My Thoughts on Regiojet
16:02 Arrival Krakow

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