Retrieved from the timetable. Poland’s cross-border railway connections – a quantitative portrait and introductory interpretative suggestions

Abstract

The article deals with the issues hardly present in Polish social sciences, particularly in sociology – passenger railway cross-border connections. The analysis conducted relates to such connections operating between Poland and its seven neighbours, with special attention paid to the quantity of trains, their categories and accessibility to travellers, i.e. to the factors which – as far ‘railway reality’ is concerned – tend to have the greatest impact on the social development of borderlands. The research was based on railway timetables valid in mid-2019, treated as a type of official document. By referring to broader socio-political circumstances as well as to the author’s own experience, certain interpretative suggestions following the results of the analysis were made here, too. The considerations presented are embedded in the sociology of borderland as one of sociology’s subdisciplines, oriented i.a. towards social phenomena occurring in areas adjacent to the borders.