----- Original Message -----
From: Jacek Wesołowski <[log in to unmask]>
To: 'Trevor Howkins' <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 23, 1999 1:08 AM
Subject: ODP: Corridor lines
>
> Dear Mr Howkins,
>
> Interesting subject. Railway and politics...
> I hope you know there were at least two corridor lines across the West
Prussia (or District of Pomerania as it was referred to in Poland). At least
on one of them (Chojnice - Tczew) there was no customs control and
passengers were not supposed to open windows at the stations while in Poland
(as later at Berlin Friedrichstrasse)!
> There were eight other cases in Poland I have come across:
> 1) Tram (or interurban) line in Upper Silesia: Krolewska Huta (PL) -
Beuthen (D) - Piekary Slaskie (PL) in 1921 - 1937. I suppose in 1937 a
'heavy rail' bypass was finished and all the traffic went there.
> 2) Tram (or interurban) line in Upper Silesia: Biskupice - Beuthen used
to cross the corner of Polish territory till the mid 1930s (?) when a
bypass was built, still in use. I think original tracks are still there in
the road (!).
> 3) Sniatyn (PL) - (R) - Kuty (PL) on the Romanian side of the Czeremosz
river - till 1939, I'm not sure if it was ever opened, but at least was
under construction;
> 4) Kolomyja (PL) - (R) - Zaleszczyki (PL) across Romania - till 1939;
> 5) Przemysl (PL) - Chyriv (UA) - Zagorz (PL), a standard gauge line across
the Soviet Union (now Ukraine). On most distance within the SU it was a
four-rail track (standard and Russian). Till the 1990s two pairs of Polish
trains covered the route, not stopping in Ukraine, with Soviet guards riding
on the outside steps of the carriages! Since then, as I've heard, trains
call at Chyriv, where border controls are placed for those alighting and
joining;
> 6) Lichkov (CZ) - Glucholazy (PL) - Opava (CZ) - a corridor for Czech
trains, probably stopping in Poland since recently, but I'm not sure.
> 7) Frydland n. N. (CZ) - (PL) - Zittau (D) - a shortcut across the SW
corner of Poland, I guess a non-stop one.
> 8) In the same corner line Gorlitz - Zittau goes on some segment on Polish
side of the river Neisse/Nysa; a non-stop corridor.
>
> Additionally, away from Poland, there are some of these lines around
>
> The obvious ones are the BAOR trains that ran through East Germany to West
Berlin, and, stretching the limits a bit, the underground system in West
Berlin that ran through abandoned stations in East Berlin. If one stretches
the idea to the absolute limit then, although not running in a "corridor",
the sealed train that carried Lenin through Germany to Russia in 1917 would
qualify.
There must be others!
Niall Ferguson
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