BERLIN-Brandenburg Transport Authority (VBB) and the Lubuskie regional government have announced the reopening of the cross-border railway linking Guben, Germany, and Gubin, Poland, from June 2022.
Initially a weekend service will be operated as route RB92 Cottbus - Guben - Zielona Góra Główna from June 12 2022 with three train pairs on Saturdays and two on Sundays. Services will be operated using Pesa Link DMUs owned by the Lubuskie regional government.
Passenger services on the route last operated two decades ago although the line has remained open for freight traffic.
The weekend service is the first stage of a plan to upgrade the line in Poland between the German border at Gubin and Czerwieńsk, and the introduction of six to eight train pairs per day. The modernisation planned for Line 358 in Poland (Gubin - Czerwieńsk) includes the reconstruction of stations and eventually electrification.
The reopening plan is part of the larger RailBLu cross-border project between Poland and Germany funded by the European Union as part of the Interreg funding initiative. The project partners are the Lubuskie Voivodeship (Urząd Marszałkowski Województwa Lubuskiego), the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Planning of the state of Brandenburg and VBB.
The RailBLu’ project aims to improve services on five cross-border routes:
- (Seelow) - Werbig - Gorzów Wlkp
- Frankfurt (Oder) - Rzepin - Zielona Góra/Zbąszynek
- Cottbus - Guben/Gubin - Czerwieńsk - Zielona Góra
- Gorzów Wlkp. - Zbąszynek - Babimost - Zielona Góra/Cottbus, and
- Cottbus - Forst - Żary - Żagań.
