ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the turning points in the history of the Polish state railways in the twentieth century. Three dates 1918, 1945 and 1989 are essential for understanding the history of modern Poland: they mean political, economic and social changes. This contribution shows that these turning points impacted the railways too. The development of railways in Polish territories was uneven. The highest density of railways was in the Polish territories under the hegemony of Germany and the lowest in the area under the hegemony of Russia. Polish territory is situated in the middle of Europe and since the Middle Ages it has drawn extensively on the trade between the East and West. In the middle of the 1920s, the Polish government realised that the state was not able to finance the growth of the railway network, and sought. Today, the Polish railways are backward in many areas: infrastructure, rolling stock and management.
