Lithuania is a country under construction. You could see it on every corner. Many institutions of state sovereignty appeared fresh and unused: police, post office, telecommunications, infrastructure. Above all, the railway network left an impression on me as if trains, display boards, ticket systems, etc. had just hatched. The few short kilometers by train within the small country were served with an apparent professionalism that was unparalleled.
It should not be forgotten that until 1990, the country was firmly integrated into the Soviet, or previously the Tsarist, railway network and was therefore oriented towards Minsk and Moscow. The track gauge of the rails was also incompatible with that in Western Europe.
My booked 'direct' connection to Warsaw was therefore also associated with a train change in the Lithuanian-Polish border town of Mockava.
Despite all the professionalism in train dispatch, errors still occurred. Seat reservations were double-booked during the first leg of the journey. My seat neighbor, a young Lithuanian, commented that European modernity could only be felt in the capital city. It was different in the rest of the country.
The EU took on the task with the Rail Baltica project to reorganize the entire region's railway traffic and to separate the Baltic states from Moscow in terms of infrastructure and connect them to Western Europe, bypassing the Kaliningrad enclave: a century-long project.
Not uninteresting: since the route through the so-called Suwałki Gap is of strategic importance, funds from the military sector are also flowing into railway construction.
I felt that the Rail Baltica work was in full swing, especially during the journey in the Polish border area. Our iron horse crawled through the landscape at minimum speed, past platform construction sites, intermediate rails, and sleepers.
Only from the Polish Białystok did the journey finally pick up speed.
That's the outside view. In the train itself, I shared a six-seat compartment with four fellow travelers. A community of fate for almost nine hours of travel, during which it was necessary to manage eye contact, legroom, fresh air supply, noise level, etc. in a way that helped everyone. The Latvian mother with her daughter of about 16, the British tourist, and the Turkish gentleman who continued to Krakow as the final stop.
When we arrived in Warsaw at around 9 p.m., relief and a sigh of relief spread among our silent travel group.
In total, the journey by train across the Nemunas, Bug, and Vistula rivers took more time than the comparable bus tour. The expansion of the highway and road network has progressed much faster in recent years than the expansion of the railways. A development that seems familiar, unfortunately.
