Another episode of the embarrassing series titled "Poznań Central Station." The railroaders are making the acceleration of work on a decent station building conditional on abandoning the architectural competition. Meanwhile, after 2.5 years (!) of construction, they have opened 230 meters of a new tunnel for passengers and renumbered the platforms.
Let's abandon the competition for Poznan's train station , railroaders recently suggested. What they mean is a building to come into existence where the old station stands today, closed almost a decade ago after the construction of a pseudo station that is part of the Avenida shopping center (designed by BOSE International, Pentagram). Extremely non-functional, as well as cramped and unsightly, the facility serves a major train station that ranks second in the country in terms of passengers served.
Poznań Główny station - a new pseudo station from Matya Street (only a small part of the visible building has station functions, on the left: a shopping center)
photo: Jakub Głaz
The reason for abandoning the competition? Surprising. Railroad officials report that it's a matter of haste and finances. Holding the competition would delay the start of the investment. The explanation will amuse anyone who has followed at least a little of the history of efforts to restore the station where it has functioned meaningfully since the early 1880s (we've written about the subsequent meanderings of the matter many times in AiB, including here and here). Because, after pressure from community activists (primarily from the Investment for Poznań association) and the city authorities, who joined the activists after the change of mayor eight years ago, the push for the restitution of the old station began as early as 2015!
seven years and nothing
So for seven years the matter did not move forward, although at the beginning everything was promising reasonably well. Public consultations were held, and there was even a concept for a hybrid of hotel and office buildings with additional station function by PIG Architects. In play were contemporary variants and those referring to the original appearance of the building, which was transformed several times after the war to give it a more modern form (still, however, most of the walls remember the 19th century). The subject of design work was also the square in front of the station - today an extremely neglected space with the quality of an inferior parking lot.
This concept, however, fell through. In 2016, the PKP pleased Poznań residents with the vision of restoring a fully functional building in its historic form and the announcement of extensive consultations. And that plan backfired, as the entire PKP board changed. In 2019, the railroaders commissioned another concept and planned to demolish the old building, but after a media alert about the improper actions of the hired design firm, this idea collapsed as well. Recent years, meanwhile, have seen a lazy tug-of-war between the railroaders and the city government over a final agreement on the station. Among other things, the city wants a decent architectural competition.
Square - yes, station - no
Now there's a twist in the matter - after an interpellation by MP Joanna Jaskowiak, according to transport-public.pl, the railroaders want the competition to cover only the square in front of the station (which belongs primarily to the city, and partially to the railroad). Meanwhile, the building itself and its functions are to be worked out and determined on the basis of previous analyses, conservation findings and workshops with residents. PKP would respect the results of the competition for the station square, and the city authorities would accept the intentions for the station . Whether this will happen will be discussed in future episodes of the train station series.
1. the entrance to the new tunnel from Składowa Street (the sheet metal fence is a temporary solution, work is still in progress), left: the Station Bridge;
2. the new tunnel under the tracks connected to the old one, there are only two entrances on this 230-meter stretch: to the new platform 1
photo: Jakub Glaz
Today, however, we note that after 2.5 years the railroad has completed construction of a 230-meter extension of the passenger tunnel (width: 6 meters) serving the station's platforms. Admittedly, the underpass does not run, as it should, straight - to the foreground of the shopping center, but sideways, at a right angle - towards secluded Składowa Street, but it still improves the passage through the station area towards the city center. It allows the new station and mall building to be completely bypassed, and facilitates the connection to the PKS station - until now very badly connected to the PKP station.
The tunnel, opened this week, runs under the tracks of the new platform, the construction of which - equally lengthy - is coming to a painful end. However, the quality of some of the solutions, both on the platform and in the tunnel, is still not up to the stature of the Poznan station (see photos for details).
1. the new platform 1. in the middle you can see a cursory canopy set under the opening in the roof above the platforms - patching up mistakes from 10 years ago,
2. the substandard quality of the shelter over the entrance to the tunnel on Storey Street (the fence on both sides is temporary)
photo: Jakub Głaz
As a solace, the railroaders finally changed the numbering of the platforms last Sunday (the newest one is marked with the number 1). The previous one was very chaotic and unintuitive. The new solution(eleven fairly sensibly arranged platforms instead of six, including some with letter extensions) is morelegible, although it is far from perfect.
Poznań Główny station - functional diagram of the station with the new numbering of platforms
photo: Jakub Głaz
Better ideas were presented by Investments for Poznań, while consulting its concepts with residents. The railroaders, contrary to their announcements, did not do the consultation and imposed their solution. If this is how the workshops proposed by PKP will look like, which are to replace the competition, the future of Poznan's train station still looks black.
