Everyone talks about reconstruction between Wolsztyn and Poznan, but no-one seems to know details …

But there are some hard facts. One is that at least a major part of the refurbishment will be paid by the European Union. The work started already, they carried some construction material to some of the stations. In Sreniawa you can see a big plate on which the construction works are announced. No-one of the railway men I asked knew a detailed plan. But one thing seemed to be sure: from October 17th, 2010 they want to pile up sleepers in Granowo. They talked about wooden sleepers, but I already saw material which is used for concrete sleepers. They want to close the line only partly. The traffic in the closed part will be taken over by buses. They do not have any freight trains on this line. After the line was overhauled the current speed maximum of 70 km/h should go up to 120 km/h (which is above the Ol49’s maximum permitted speed).

How the steam locos of Wolsztyn will be used during the construction period (until 2012) is still unclear. There are several scenarios. They could run on the not closed part of the line, for instance to Grodzisk or Granowo. Or they could haul trains to Zbaszyn or Leszno.

The politics opted for a museum style refurbishment of the line. They want to keep the semaphores and the traditional signal cabin equipment at least in some stations. I was told they’ll replace the old semaphores by new ones. Even some of the old barriers should be replaced by new ones in the same style. But what means same style? Probably they’ll look more modern afterwards.

In any case steam will survive. The marshal of the country announced he’ll spend one million Zloty to pay a heavy overhaul for at least two locomotives, Unfortunately they’ll be carried out in Leszno, which is a depot and not a workshop. The problems are well known …

Currently only Ol49 7 and Pm36 2 are available for hauling the trains between Wolsztyn and Poznan.