Ceske Drahy – A Seat From Warsaw To Pardubice

I stepped off the train in Pardubice to a rush of cold air and the overwhelming feeling of relief to finally be off that train, but why did I feel like this and what would I do in future to avoid this feeling again? Boarding the train in Warsaw felt like an eternity ago, but in reality it had been less than twelve hours ago.

Let me share with you my overnight sleeper train experience from Warsaw to Pardubice and how travelling solo and on a budget is an experience, but not always a glamorous one.

Journey Details

Origin: Warszawa Wschodnia

Destination: Pardubice Hlavni Nadrazi

Train: IC407 Chopin (train becomes EN442 Slovakia at Bohumin)

Journey Time: 10 hours and 47 minutes

Operator: Ceske Drahy

Price: 702 Czech Koruna (£26.19 at time of travel)

Getting on the Train

This hardly sounds exciting enough for its own section, but as you are about to see it was anything but relaxing.

This train does not depart from the main train station in Warsaw, but rather from Wschodnia station to the north west of the city centre. Getting here was straightforward enough by using the metro and walking the last bit of the way.

I arrived 45 minutes before departure but quickly realised I had two problems. The first being that after reading information about this journey on Google I was informed that I apparently needed to have a physical copy of my ticket, I only had mine on my phone. The second, and admittedly more pressing issue was my phone had less than 20% power and I did not find somewhere in the station where I could charge it.

Therefore I made my way to the PKP ticket office in the station to see what advice they had. The woman in the ticket office spoke English and was very helpful and understanding of the situation. Unfortunately she could not help as I had booked my ticket with Ceske Drahy rather than through the Polish company PKP. 

I therefore made my way to platform 2 for my train. The train is displayed on the board as a Vienna service, this is because the train actually has four separate sections to it,

• One sleeper car and one second class seating car travel to Prague
• One sleeper car and one second class seating car travel to Vienna
• One sleeper car and one second class seating car travel to Budapest
• Three second class seating cars that operate between Warsaw and Bohumin

The Prague section is located at the front of the train and was ready for boarding as soon as I arrived. If you are in a sleeper car an attendant will meet you on the platform and show you to your room. I asked him if my e-ticket would be okay rather than the printed version to which he replied “probably”.

I quickly found my compartment and seat and made myself comfortable. I noticed a power socket at the window and tried it, but it did not seem to work (you can probably guess my reaction). 

We departed Wschodnia on time at 1926 and I was starting to settle into the journey.

Warsaw to Bohumin – The Good, well average actually

I initially had the compartment of six to myself, however, at the first stop of Warszawa Gdanska four more people arrived and sat in the compartment. Despite only being the first stop the train had already gathered a delay of approximately 20 minutes.

After departing Warszawa Gdanska a member of Polish staff passed through the train to check tickets. With my phone now on 6% battery I get my ticket up and show it to the member of staff. Without hesitation he scans it and then moves on. With this the first of two hurdles had been passed, now all I had to do was keep enough power in my phone to get me to my final destination in a little over 12 hours.

The train made its way through Poland, stopping at cities such as Krakow and Katowice, it was here everyone else in the compartment left and I was joined by four new people and a dog.

We arrived in the Czech Republic just after 2am.

90 minutes in Bohumin – The not so good, well loud actually

It is here that the four sections of the train split from each other, meaning that the two carriages going to Prague were shunted out of the station. The reason for this is these two carriages join onto train EN443 from Humenne in Slovakia which arrives ninety minutes after the Warsaw train.

Thanks to the delay on our service we were able to join this service and wait in the station quicker than normal. I used this as an opportunity to stretch my legs, and also an opportunity to escape the door closing alarm that had been repeating itself on a loop for the last thirty minutes.

As the train was booked to wait here for two hours we made up all of the forty minute delay and we departed on time at 0336.

Bohumin to Pardubice – The final Stretch

Very shortly after departing Bohumin all seating car passengers are woken from whatever state of sleep they are in to have their tickets checked by a member of Ceske Drahy staff who boarded at the border.

I showed my e-ticket once again and this was accepted without issue, by now my phone was on 2% battery, no chance I was reaching my final destination with power, but I should at least make it to Pardubice.

Shortly after this check we departed Ostrava before continuing towards Olomouc. It was at this point I was finally able to get some sleep and I woke up about five minutes outside of Pardubice. I don’t know why but this section of the journey felt like the longest, despite being significantly shorter than the section from Warsaw to Bohumin.

Arriving in Pardubice – finally

We arrived on time at 0622 and the rush of cold air was a welcome feeling, after all I had just spent 10 hours in a small compartment with four strangers at a time.

My troubles were not over as it turned out as I decided this would be a fantastic place to have a nosebleed, no matter, I had no tissues but was able to use a clean t-shirt to stop it. Whilst trying to stop it I wrote down my thoughts on the journey before making my way to the ticket office to buy a ticket to my final destination.

I also realised that my decision to not buy any food or drinks for the journey in Warsaw was a mistake, so if you do this journey learn from my mistake and take stuff with you for the journey.

My Final Thoughts

Overall, given I had paid just £26 I would say it was excellent value for the distance travelled, when combined with my Ryanair flight from Glasgow to Warsaw it still worked out over £100 cheaper than the direct flight to Prague with Jet2.com.

The experience you have on this journey is fully dependent on who you share a compartment with, you will either get very lucky or very unlucky. This journey was an experience to say the least and I can now say I have done it, but I will not be rushing to do it again.

I would like to take this train again, but in a sleeper berth so I can get a true reflection of the experience onboard and truly experience night train travel in Europe. I probably would have gotten a better night’s sleep on the service if I knew that my e-ticket was valid, and if the seats were better designed to have somewhere to rest your head during the night.