Warszawa Centralna

Our guide to the main railway station in Warsaw focuses on the less obvious aspects of arriving and departing from here by train.

If you would like help with planning a train journey to or from Warszawa / Warsaw, or want to include the city on a European train travel itinerary, take a look at ShowMeTheJourney's new Concierge Service.

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Warszawa Centralna is a train station of contrasts.
On the outside it’s a text book example of stark brutalist Soviet era architecture - which we're rather partial to, though we appreciate it's not to everyone's taste.

However, the interior of Warszawa Centralna  has been modernised, creating a pleasant, user-friendly environment in which to catch a train.
A particularly worthy achievement, as the platform/perons are below ground, because the trains arrive and depart within a rail tunnel which crosses the city.

The other main stations in Warszawa:

Warszawa has three stations used by long distance trains.
This station, Warszawa Centralna, lives up to its name with a location closest to the city centre - though it's still some distance from many of the most popular areas of Warsaw.

However, trains from the south and west call first at Warszawa Zachodnia station - before going on to call at Warszawa Centralna and then Warszawa Wschodnia station.
Mirroring this pattern, trains from the north and east call first at Warszawa Wschodnia station before going calling at Warszawa Centralna and then Warszawa Zachodnia.

So when arriving in the city by train, the first station in Warsaw that your train will call at won’t be Warszawa Centralna and this may not be particularly obvious -  so take care not to leave the train at the wrong station.