Full steam ahead?

The age of the steam trainparowóz may be long gone in most parts of the world, but here in Poland not only is it alive and kickingtrzyma się nieźle, but it is also drawingto draw: przyciągać ever-increasing numbers of steam enthusiasts to the country.

This week, the UK's BBC News carried an upliftingpodnoszący na duchu report on one of Europe's last working steam engine depotsbaza, dworzec, in a town called Wolsztyn, 60km southwest of Poznań. There lives Mr. Howard Jones who, after 30 years of running a travel company in Sussex, resigned, sold his home and moved to Wolsztyn to start a new life. When asked why, Mr. Jones made a remarkuwaga which any Polish readers thinking of making a beeline for Britain on May 1 should take note of: "...But like a lot of things in Britain now, sadly all the fun's gone and it's all stress." Now he is the director of the Wolsztyn Experience course which, according to the report, is the only place in the world where you get to drive a passenger steam trainparowóz taking hundreds of commuterscommuter: ktoś dojeżdżający do pracy to work.

Over the last six years, more than 1,500 people have traveled to Wolsztyn to take the one-week course. As a typicaltypowy example, the program featured a father and son driving that day's train to Poznań, the son having bought the course as a sixtieth birthday present for his father, who was very happy doing the driving while his son heavedto heave: podnosić shovelfuls of coalłopaty pełne węgla into the furnacepiec.
The report also contained a number of quotescytaty typicaltypowy for steam enthusiasts, as they described their passionpasja for the trains, such as the "closest a piece of machinery comes to being alive" although they did say that their family and friends thought they were mad.
The money brought in by the tourists goes towards keeping the steam trains running, and Mr. Jones has an agreementumowa, porozumienie with the state railway company (PKP) that lasts until 2007. He says there is a realization of how special and important Wolsztyn is, calling it industrial heritagedziedzictwo rather than a museum, and he's confident he'll be able to extendto extend: rozszerzyć, przedłużyć the agreementumowa, porozumienie beyond the next three years. It's nice to see that there remainto remain: pozostawać some areas of transportation in which Poland still excelsto excel: górować w czymś.

When it comes to car manufacturing, of course, it's a different story.
Regular readers of this column may remember a story a few weeks ago in which The Slovak Spectator reported that Slovakian TV mistakenlybłędnie said that car manufacturer Hyundai had chosen Slovakia over Poland for its new zł.5.8 billion (€1.2 billion) car plant. This investmentinwestycja will create 2,500 jobs directly, and a further 5,000 indirectly, and the resulting facility will produce 200,000 new Kia cars a year by 2006.
Well, Slovakian TV was not wrong, only four weeks too early. Hyundai did indeed announceto announce: ogłaszać this week that the plant will be built in Slovakia - and Poland lost out again.

Url źródłowy: http://www.wbj.pl/?command=article&id=21550&type=opi

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