With eight percent of Poland's total population living in the Warsaw urban area, development of rail systems was inevitable. Currently a few systems operate in the area:
Warsaw Metro
The only subway system in Poland. The first plans began forming in the mid-1920s, but history had other plans. Proper tunneling work picked up in the 1980s and in 1995, the first line, dubbed M1, was partially opened, with trains going between the neighbourhood of Kabaty and the main campus of Warsaw University of Technology. The line was finally finished in 2008, reaching the northernmost terminus in Młociny.
After many years and unexpected difficulties, including one of the stations near the river getting flooded, a new line, M2, was opened in 2015. Crossing over with M1 at the Świętokrzyska station and going under the Vistula river, it connected Rondo Daszyńskiego and the Warszawa Wileńska train station. Since then it's been extended at both ends, and by 2024 it's supposed to reach Karolin on the east and Bródno on the west.
The announcements for M1 were provided free of charge by Ksawery Jasieński
, a well-renowned radio speaker, voice actor and voiceover lector. M2 announcements were provided by Maciej Gudowski, another voiceover lector.
Before the M2 line started operating, the single solitary line was the source of jokes about the relatively underdeveloped subway in Warsaw, sometimes phrased as a suggestion to hand out pens with the layout of the "network". Some people joked that after M2 opens, you'll get the layout printed on crucifixes, alluding to the overbearing presence of the Catholic Church in the country.
Szybka Kolej Miejskanote
Shortened to SKM, pronounced "ess-kah-em". The plans for it were as old as the subway ones, but the very first "proper" line, with its tickets integrated with the rest of Warsaw's public transport, was opened in 2005. Operating on regular train tracks, it serves Warsaw and its metropolitan area.
Warsaw Commuter Railway
WKD (from the Polish name, Warszawska Kolej Dojazdowa) is much older than the above systems, managing to begin operation even before WW2. It consists of a single branching line from Warszawa Śródmieście (a semi-separate station a few steps away from the Warszawa Centralna station) and Grodzisk Mazowiecki, with a branch to Milanówek.
