From December 14, when the new timetable takes effect, the railway operator RegioJet will expand its presence in Poland. It will launch new routes to the Polish capital, including the Krakow—Warsaw—Gdynia line and an international connection Warsaw—Ostrava—Prague. From February, there will also be service between Warsaw and Poznań. The carrier announced this information on its website. Since September, RegioJet has been operating a trial service on the Krakow—Warsaw route.

“The carrier can already transport more than one million passengers in Poland in 2026, and Poland will become its second most important market in domestic long-distance transport,” said the Association of Personal Railway Carriers (SVOD Bohemia) in a press release on Wednesday.

According to the association, this marks one of the most significant milestones in the history of the company, which already operates in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary.

Until the end of March 2026, trains on these routes will run according to the planned timetable but still in extended trial operation, during which staff will be trained. Full commercial service will begin on April 1.

Poland will also become more accessible for travelers thanks to increased services from Leo Express, which will offer daily trains between Prague and Krakow starting mid-December, with additional trains during peak demand periods. Some services are expected to extend to Warsaw next year. From the end of April, Leo Express will also connect Prague with Bratislava’s Petržalka district.

Czech Railways (ČD) will also introduce new services with the new timetable. Notably, overnight trains from Prague to Polish Przemyśl will start running, expanding travel options to the Polish-Ukrainian border. These trains will connect with Ukrainian Railways services heading towards Lviv, Kyiv, and Kharkiv.

“We are responding to the growing demand for comfortable overnight travel to this area,” said ČD CEO Michal Krapinec in a company press release.

From December, ČD will also provide connections from Prague to Austrian Villach, near the borders of Italy and Slovenia. These trains will run on the Koralm railway line, where new ComfortJets will reach speeds of up to 230 kilometers per hour. Trains on the upcoming Prague to Copenhagen route, scheduled from May, will also achieve these speeds.

The Czech Republic’s domestic infrastructure currently does not support such speeds. Since the end of August, Pendolino trains have operated between Prague and České Budějovice at a maximum speed of 200 kilometers per hour, breaking the previous Czech railway speed record of 160 km/h. According to SVOD, modern trains of Czech carriers can only reach higher speeds on foreign tracks.

“Czech trains will run on foreign tracks at speeds that domestic infrastructure still does not allow. This is a success for the carriers but also a clear signal that without investments in capacity lines, electrification, and modernization of key junctions, Czech rail cannot move forward,” said Petr Moravec, the executive director of the association. He added that many of the busiest lines are already at capacity.