Polish Coal Trunk-Line

The Coal Trunk-Line (Polish: Magistrala Węglowa) is one of the most important rail connections in Poland.

It crosses the central part of the country, from the coal mines and steelworks of Upper Silesia in the South to the Baltic Sea port of Gdynia in the North. The line is used mostly by freight trains: passenger connections on it are few. Constructed in the late 1920s and early 1930s, it was one of the biggest investments of the Second Polish Republic.

The Coal Trunk-Line starts at the station Chorzów Batory, in the Upper Silesian city of Chorzów, heading north. After crossing almost 30 kilometers it reaches Tarnowskie Góry – a very important freight station located on the northern outskirts of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin.

Then, the line goes towards Kalety and Herby Nowe. In Herby Nowe, the Coal Trunk-Line proper begins. The connection Chorzów Batory – Kalety had been built before the 1920s, by the Germans, as these lands had belonged to Germany until 1921. Then, in 1926 a Kalety – Herby Nowe – Wieluń – Kępno line was constructed, thanks to which Upper Silesia and Poznań got a direct connection, without the necessity of using the then-German junction at Kreuzburg (Kluczbork).

From Herby Nowe, crossing the strategic junctions of Chorzew Siemkowice and Zduńska Wola Karsznice, the Coal Trunk-Line reaches Inowrocław. From there it goes to Bydgoszcz, which had already been connected to Gdańsk and Gdynia (via Laskowice and Tczew), but the creation of Free City of Danzig made it difficult to keep regular Polish freight movement in the interbellum. Thus, another part of the Coal Trunk-Line between Bydgoszcz and Gdynia was constructed in the early 1930s, via Wierzchucin and Kościerzyna and the sparsely populated forests and hills of Kashubia.

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Wikipedia