Berlin to Warsaw express train adds free onboard culture programme

A decorated saloon carriage carrying live concerts, theatre performances, dance and readings will be attached to the Berlin-Warszawa Express eight times starting September 24, offering passengers a free cultural programme included in the price of their train ticket.

The initiative, described by organisers as a rolling culture house on rails, turns a 512-kilometre international rail route into a stage for more than 30 events. Nearly 60 artists and several music ensembles are scheduled to perform across the eight journeys, according to Oliver Spatz of the European Academy Berlin, one of the organisers behind the project.

"A saloon carriage from the Polish state railway PKP will be attached to the train for eight journeys," Spatz said. The carriage is being fitted out to create a welcoming setting for the multilingual programme, which will run alongside the regular service between Berlin, Poznan and Warsaw.

Passengers holding a valid ticket for the train will not need to pay anything extra to attend the performances. The full schedule of events has been published online ahead of the launch.

The project follows an earlier culture train that ran between Berlin and Wroclaw from 2016 until earlier this year. Spatz said that service completed 1,542 journeys before it ended, providing the template for the new Berlin to Warsaw edition.

The first journey of the new programme is scheduled to depart Warsaw's main station, Warszawa Centralna, at 3pm on Thursday, September 24. The Eurocity service EC42 will travel to Berlin via Poznan, with the decorated saloon carriage attached for the full route. Entry to the onboard events will not be charged separately, organisers confirmed.

Performances are due to begin around 4:30pm, when the band Warszawskie Combo Taneczne will play prewar Warsaw songs. About ninety minutes later, the Teatr Wielki opera and theatre company from Poznan is scheduled to present excerpts from its repertoire. Jazz singer Emily Intsiful, who has Ghanaian and Liberian roots, will perform songs by German singer Hildegard Knef during the same journey.

Later in the trip, as the train approaches the German-Polish border, organisers plan to present findings from the German-Polish Barometer, a survey project that has tracked how the two neighbouring countries view each other for 26 years. Another segment of the programme will focus on the history of Polish women who took part in resistance against National Socialism, with a presentation planned before the train reaches Berlin.

The inaugural journey of the new programme is scheduled to arrive at Berlin's Gesundbrunnen station at 8:25pm.

The Warsaw terminus for the launch, Warszawa Centralna, is a building completed in 1975 that is regarded as an example of modernist architecture and has recently undergone a full renovation, according to organisers.

The new saloon carriage programme builds on a trial run staged in February 2025, when Kulturprojekte GmbH chartered a saloon carriage from train operator PKP Intercity. That carriage operated as part of the regular Eurocity service between Berlin and Warsaw on six occasions, hosting a range of cultural performances for passengers during the test phase.

Organisers have not announced whether the culture train service will continue beyond the current run of eight scheduled journeys.

Photo by Nikolai Kolosov on Pexels