Changing trains in Poznan

I will be traveling by train from Berlin to Leszno via Poznan with my 85yo mother. The shortest itinerary includes only 5 minutes to change trains in Poznan. Is this enough time or should I a choose an itinerary with a longer time in Poznan?

You should be fine changing in 5 minutes, Does it say which platform your connection goes from in advance?

Anyway trains from Poznan to Leszno are quite regular so even if you miss your connection you'll be fine.

In this summer 2 of 3 long distance trains I travelled were more than 5 mins late for no obvious reason. Can't say if that was just unusually bad luck, but I wouldn't count on catching that connection if I were you...

I agree with ikes; 5 minutes is not enough if we are talking about Polish railways;

sometimes the out-going train waits for the in-coming train.

it's the berlin train that's likely to be late.

Also, you might not have to change platforms.

In my opinion you have less than 50% chance to make it, especially with an old lady. Try to ask train staff what are your chances. They usually know things like if they will be on time and if the other train is waiting and on wich platform.

PS. But be carefull what kind of ticket you have, there are about tree different rail companies on this route. If you will have wrong ticket, you will have to buy another one (you will can get part of the money back on the station though why bother with that..). So, about an hour before arrival time to Poznan, with your ticket in hand and maybe along with some good soul speaking both polish and english go to the conductor and ask him what are your options.

I agree. Poznan station is quite big, and there are plenty of steps and a lot of walking. I'm young-ish and fit, but still wouldn't want to chance it and certainly not with luggage. It's probably better to choose a different connection. If there's a lot of waiting time, it's no tragedy since there are quite a few cafes etc in the station.

My girlfriend recently wanted to take a train journey which involved a connection in Poznan which had six minutes between trains. The man at the ticket office in Warsaw (the office, not one of the windows) said that he could sell us the ticket but there was no way he'd take that journey himself because the trains were different companies and if the first one was late, the second one certainly would not wait for it. She ended up flying to Gdansk and getting a train from there.

Yep. Relying on a short connection between PKP Intercity and Przewozy Regionalne is not a good idea at all - take the train with the

The crucial thing to note is that there are different fares for each class of train - the best advice is to buy the Leszno ticket in Poznan rather than onboard the Berlin train. If you let us know your planned itinery, I'll tell you what you need - the type of train is *very* important when buying tickets.

Which is all the more reason not to have a five-minute window to change trains - the queues at Poznan Glowny can be quite long. I've been caught out by that myself.

I will be traveling by train (DB) from Berlin to Gdansk via Poznan. The itinerary includes only 8 minutes to change trains in Poznan train station. Is this enough time ?

Yes - assuming its on time.

Check which platform your DB train arrives at and which the local train leaves for Gdańsk from. If they are platforms 1 and 11, you will have to hurry if you are going to carry a lot of luggage, for example. Or kids and a dog.

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No, not with a long journey like that.

The chances are 50/50 that she makes it. Unless train lines cooperate and Polish ones know that passengers from that DB train want to change in Poznan so the train for Gdansk will wait a little.

Less than 50/50. Due to the distance 5 minutes delay is nothing. Add not knowing the train station (my assumption here) and you have a very risky change over. Even for local trains I would like to have 10+ minutes for a change.

It is true though that you can inform the crew about the change and they will try to hold the second train.

Even if it is different rail company?

@amiga500
In Germany, trains don't wait, and certainly not in Poland, because it would destroy the entire intricately arranged timetable. The train cannot wait 10 minutes just like that because after 10 minutes another train is already running on the same tracks. Delays are the bane of every traffic dispatcher.

They do. It's called skomunikowanie. But it does depend on the situation. Like the number of travelers, how big the delay is, what other options there are etc

Trains do wait and there is a big chance that in this case they would for a small delay

Once going back to Poznań from Gdańsk the train was very late and a couple of middle aged German ladies were worried about making their connection to Berlin (the layover was originally very long but the late train was eating into that). A friend and I talked to a conductor who said he would call ahead so the train would wait... (probably less than 10 minutes...)

When we arrived at the station of course.... long gone. It was late at night but by that time there were a couple of other passengers helping them and they roused the station master on duty who said he'd arrange for them to get to Berlin...

Forget trains even planes wait it has happened with me plenty of times when they park the late plane on the tarmac waiting for bus there is a person standing with your name on a sign board to take you directly to the other plane and priority immigration process too.I wonder if trains wait in the States though.

The fact is that some 25 years ago, when I was traveling on a night train from Berlin to Pasewalk, the train pulled into the station and continued without stopping. All the passengers stayed on the platform. We were several people. The traffic controller ordered 2 taxis which in the middle of the night took us to Pasewalk to the station. This is how the railway in Germany used to work. It's way worse now. Recently, the train that the wife wanted to take to Zurich ended up in Leipzig in the middle of the night and.....take care of yourself, it's your problem.

This is because investment into DB has been cut to pay for the fake refugees.

All of the late planes out of Warsaw to Krakow, Poznan etc will wait for connections - you are often sitting 30 mins on the asfalt while a few stragglers arrive from Paris or Madrid. It's irritating until you are the one who benefits from it

Last autumn I remember preparing for a work-related meeting in Leipzig on a zoom meeting. When talking about how to get there by train, one of the German participants started giving directions for how to use Deutsche Bahn and it honestly seemed more like the third world than supposedly modern and ultra-competent Germany...

"If you see a train going in the right direction just get on and then talk to the conductor" was one bit of advice I remember (along with the uselessness of current official posted schedules)..

I ended up not going (bit of a pity since I wanted to see Leipzig) but around the same time I was seeing other information indicating an almost total breakdown of scheduling..... what happened?

I don't know, 🤔 perhaps it is that since 2011, the owner of DB has been paying himself an annual dividend of € 0.5 billion, and he had not done so before. Oh, and to this day, the German state is the owner.

Mine did when I had to change at Chełm to go to Lublin some years back. It got into the station 10 minutes late and I didn't think for one minute my train would still be there. At the time I thought it was nothing short of a miracle because that just wouldn't happen in the UK.

Yes, coz this stick has two ends, You made it in time while some passengers on the waiting train didn`t in the destination they were going to.