New train service between Prague and Krakow
 

I know there are a lot of train users on the Europe forums.

LEO Express is expected to start service end of June, beginning of July.

Initial service from Krakow to Prague will run on Mondays and Saturdays with a 05:04 departure, arriving in Prague at 11:39.

Prague to Krakow will run Fridays and Sundays.

The frequency will most probably increase once the rail bed on the Polish portion is modernized, (that will probably happen on the fortieth of May when the curtains are in bloom, old Polish joke).

Polish article:
Rozk?ad poci?gów Leo Express z Krakowa do Pragi - Poznaj Polsk?

Great info - 5 am start sucks - rather take the overnight train (assuming still runs) that get up in middle of night - hopefully will have later trains. Anyway thanks for posting!

Why is this such great news? there are already direct trains between those cities and at better times. There is a Eurocity at 10:24 am. Of course that train takes almost 7 hours, so does this new one, it's a long trip.. I guess if you want to go at 5 am, this would be appealing.

The 'good news' is that trackwork will greatly speed up those trains in near future. And presume LEO is more comfy than the present trains. But yes 5 am is not great.

You guys must be a bunch of young guns.
I have just started my sixth decade and at 4 AM am usually wide awake.
It is not great news or bad news, just travel related news.
Take it or leave it.

It's good news anytime some new train service is mentioned. I'd still rather take the overnight train than 5 am - which means getting up about 3 am to pack and get to station, etc. Assume again this is a first step in greatly improved train service on that route. Right now many would prefer to fly than spend 7 hours on a train. Again thanks for posting!

@cdnyul - I am older than you are and am fast asleep at 4 am. I don't go to bed until after midnight. Don't make assumptions that everyone your age has the same habits. No way would I catch this train if there is any reasonable alternative.

This is great news.

From Prague, you can book the existing EuroCity from €19 at Czech Railways www.cd.cz - so in that direction the existing EuroCity train is fine.

BUT in the other direction, starting from Krakow, Polish Railways haven't enabled online booking (criminally negligent IMHO), and cd,cz cannot be used to book in this direction because Polish conductors won't accept CD tickets unless previously stamped by a CD conductor or station.

Therefore you EITHER have to use agency Polraill.com which charge full price a whopping €86 OR buy at the station, which for most overseas visitors means when they get there shortly before departure, which means no more €19 fares, full-price €80-odd (same as Polrail without the agency markup)

In other words, in plain English...

- The existing EuroCity costs €86 with non-existent online booking unless you go through an agency.
- This new Leo Express service will cost (at a guess) from €19 with easy online booking and e-tickets.

So this new train will SLASH costs and allow EASY ONLINE BOOKING in the Krakow to Prague direction.

PKP had better pull its socks up!!