Rail takes over the coast: a record summer on Poland's Gdynia-Hel line

For two summer months, the train - not the car - becomes the main way to reach the Baltic coast in Poland's Pomerania region. POLREGIO, the country's largest regional operator, has ramped up service on its flagship Gdynia–Hel route to as many as 42 trains a day, while national figures confirm that passenger rail is breaking record after record. Behind the summer surge, however, lies a question that returns every year: track capacity and the pace of investment.

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06 july 2026   |   07:07   |   Source: Gazeta Morska   |   Prepared by: Kamil Kusier   |   Print

fot. POLREGIO

Up to 42 trains a day to the Hel Peninsula

The summer timetable took effect in stages. From 14 June, weekend service on the Gdynia Główna–Hel line rose to 42 trains a day; from 27 June to 31 August, the expanded offer runs seven days a week. Weekend service is set to continue at that level until 27 September, although the summer timetable amendment itself is scheduled to run until 29 August.

Regional services are commissioned by the Pomorskie Voivodeship (the regional government), with POLREGIO as operator. The carrier stresses that the seaside season is exceptional in Pomerania: on the Hel Peninsula a slender sandbar reaching into the Baltic and one of Poland's best-known summer destinations trains carry passengers almost directly onto the beach, an alternative to the traffic jams and packed car parks of the resorts.

The changes reach beyond Hel. After more than two decades, POLREGIO has restored weekday service on the Somonino–Kartuzy line, giving residents of the Kashubia region a convenient link to the Tri-City (Gdańsk–Gdynia–Sopot), while seasonal trains have also been reinforced toward Mielno, Darłowo and Kamień Pomorski. On some routes, passengers should expect rail-replacement buses because of ongoing modernisation works.

The rail boom in numbers

The coastal rush is a local expression of a nationwide trend. In the data of Poland's Office of Rail Transport (UTK), the closest statistical proxy for the summer holidays is the third quarter: between July and September 2025, some 112 million passengers travelled by train in Poland, up 8.7% year on year. The fastest growth - more than doubling - came in occasional and tourist services, driven in part by the Tri-City's SKM urban rail.

The wider picture is even more striking. In the first half of 2025, 211.3 million passengers used Poland's railways, placing the country sixth in Europe, and passenger numbers have risen by more than 56% since 2015. POLREGIO alone runs an average of around 370 trains a day in Pomerania, calling at close to 200 stations and stops, with 846 km of routes served in the region.

A bottleneck on a single track

Rising demand, though, exposes the limits of the infrastructure. Summer traffic concentrates on a handful of coastal routes, and the line to the Hel Peninsula — line 213 — remains largely single-track. That is a natural constraint: the number and length of trains are capped not only by available rolling stock but also by the route's capacity, platform lengths and the number of passing loops. Adding trains at the height of the season can therefore be harder than passenger demand alone would suggest.

It is a challenge typical of seasonal rail: demand is moderate for most of the year, then spikes sharply in summer. Holding rolling-stock and capacity reserves "for two months" is expensive - yet those two months largely determine how accessible the entire coast is.

Investment versus mobility gaps

The answer is not simply adding trains for the season, but steady investment in new and better-connected routes. Pomerania is modernising line after line and planning strategic connections - from second tracks on main corridors, through the proposed line across the Żuławy lowlands linking Elbląg, Nowy Dwór Gdański and Gdańsk, to projects under the Integrated Rail Network (ZSK) programme. Each such investment means not only faster summer journeys but, above all, a chance to close transport blackspots and genuinely reduce mobility exclusion out of season.

For the coastal tourism economy, the stakes are high. Efficient, high-capacity rail means fewer cars in the resorts, better access to smaller towns and an argument that - increasingly tips the balance when travellers choose a holiday destination. Record ridership shows that passengers are ready to board  the question is whether the tracks can keep up with their appetite.

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Kolej Gdynia Hel POLREGIO rozkład wakacje 2026 pociągi nad morze Pomorze przewozy pasażerskie UTK wykluczenie komunikacyjne kolej

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