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Abstract

Innovations in transportation and telecommunications, together with their spatial diffusion, have made travel, freight transport, and information transmission increasingly faster and cheaper. As a result, the friction of distance has diminished. Places have become closer in terms of time distance, even though their spatial separation have remained unchanged. This phenomenon is known as time‑space compression or time‑space convergence. In the 19th century, the development of railways and steam navigation greatly accelerated this process. Since the 20th century, motorisation and aviation have further contributed to it. However, the patterns of time‑space compression have not been identical everywhere. They have been shaped by the specific conditions present in each region. Time distances between urban centres have shrunk more rapidly than those between core areas and peripheral ones. These processes also affected Polish lands. Warsaw received its first railway in 1845, nearly twenty years after the world’s first public steam‑powered railway opened in Northeast England in 1825. This innovative mode of transport spread gradually from the capital to other urban centres within the Kingdom of Poland (then under Russian rule), as well as to locations connecting with the railway networks of neighbouring states. This article seeks to characterise the pattern of time‑space compression in transport terms across Polish lands over the past 200 years (1825‑2025). The study focuses on the following questions:

• What was the scale, direction and rate of change in time distances in selected sub‑periods, and which factors influenced these changes?
• How closely does the process observed for Polish lands compare with foreign patterns?
• To what extent does the reduction of time distances between 2004 and 2025 – driven by investments after Poland’s EU accession – differ from changes in earlier sub‑periods?

To achieve these objectives, travel times to Warsaw using two modes of passenger land transport – horse‑drawn postal coaches and trains – were analysed for connections from five selected voivodeship cities: Kraków, Toruń, Białystok, Łódź, and Lublin. Travel times by postal coach (1825‑1840/60) were estimated based on old road maps, postal route directories, and relevant literature. For rail transport (1860/80‑2025), archival timetables have been used, allowing for the reconstruction of routes and the exact duration of the fastest passenger services available in each selected year. Travel times are considered as absolute values (Figs. 1 and 2), average speeds (Fig. 3), and through the TSC index (Table 4), which expresses the average rate of time‑space compression in the sub‑periods (minutes per year). Changes in time distances are also presented on anamorphic maps (Fig. 4), prepared in Esri ArcGIS software with the assistance of the freely available IsoDistAngle application. The pattern of time‑space compression observed in Poland – examined here through five connections with Warsaw – differs from models presented in the literature, whether from a global perspective or in the case studies of individual countries. The differences stem first from the relatively late introduction of rail transport compared to Western Europe and North America, which prolonged the dominance of slower postal‑coach connections. Secondly, most studies present only one direction of the process (compression/convergence), without acknowledging phases of stagnation or reversal (decompression/divergence). In contrast, the railway network in Polish lands suffered war damage during both world wars and experienced deterioration during the period of political and economic transition. Increases in travel time observed for the years 1914‑1919, 1939‑1950, and partially 1990‑2004, represent a genuine regression in civilizational development. Significant portions of investment efforts were directed toward rebuilding infrastructure and rolling stock, as well as addressing long‑delayed maintenance needs – improvements whose effects were often not immediate. The calculated rate of time‑space compression (Table 4) shows that over the entire period 1825‑2025, Kraków has moved closest to Warsaw, with an average of approximately 18.5 minutes per year. This is primarily a result of cumulative investments along this corridor. However, the average rate between 2004 and 2025 – despite significant expenditures on railway modernization – is several times lower than in the interwar period and dozens of times lower than in the first half of the 19th century. The factors contributing to time‑space compression in the individual sub‑periods, as identified in this study, can be grouped into three categories.

The first group consists of technical factors, including infrastructural ones:

• expansion of the paved road network and straightening of existing postal routes;
• design improvements in postal coaches that enabled the production of lighter and faster vehicles;
• connecting more and more settlements to the railway network;
• supplementing the rail network with new sections that shortened physical distances;
• upgrading existing railway infrastructure;
• introducing rolling stock designed for higher speeds.

The second group is composed of organisational factors:

• optimisation of procedures at post stations, reducing dispatching and horse‑changing times;
• establishing interchanges between postal coaches and trains in the early phase of railway development;
• optimising train timetables by reducing the number and duration of scheduled stops;
• adapting train routes to make use of railway sections with the highest technical standards.

The third group includes economic and geopolitical factors:

• involvement of private entrepreneurs in developing postal connections and building railways in the former Kingdom of Poland;
• reduction of border and customs barriers following the post‑1918 consolidation of the territory of independent Poland;
• the state’s pro‑investment transport policies in the interwar period and after World War II;
• a post‑EU accession policy focused on strengthening transport linkages between metropolitan areas.

Keywords: time-space compression, time-space convergence, temporal accessibility, passenger transport, anamorphic maps, Polish lands

Karol Kowalczyk [karol.kowalczyk@mail.umcs.pl], Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, Instytut Geografii Społeczno-Ekonomicznej i Gospodarki Przestrzennej

Citation

APA: Kowalczyk, K. (2025). Kompresja czasu i przestrzeni na ziemiach polskich w latach 1825–2025 na przykładzie pocztowych i kolejowych połączeń pasażerskich wybranych miast z Warszawą. Przegląd Geograficzny, 97(4), 375-404. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.4.2
MLA: Kowalczyk, Karol. "Kompresja czasu i przestrzeni na ziemiach polskich w latach 1825–2025 na przykładzie pocztowych i kolejowych połączeń pasażerskich wybranych miast z Warszawą". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 97, no. 4, 2025, pp. 375-404. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.4.2
Chicago: Kowalczyk, Karol. "Kompresja czasu i przestrzeni na ziemiach polskich w latach 1825–2025 na przykładzie pocztowych i kolejowych połączeń pasażerskich wybranych miast z Warszawą". Przegląd Geograficzny 97, no. 4 (2025): 375-404. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.4.2
Harvard: Kowalczyk, K. 2025. "Kompresja czasu i przestrzeni na ziemiach polskich w latach 1825–2025 na przykładzie pocztowych i kolejowych połączeń pasażerskich wybranych miast z Warszawą". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 97, no. 4, pp. 375-404. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.4.2

Abstract

This paper compares Poland’s emerging offshore wind market, with the United Kingdom, the European leader in the sector, to explore how economic benefits from offshore wind are distributed spatially. The Spatial Economic Benefit Analysis (SEBA) method was applied and refined by integrating an economic dimension, enabling the estimation of contract values and their geographical allocation. The study covers 18 projects, linking supply chain actors with contract packages to assess spatial concentration. Results show that supply chains tend to cluster: in the UK, a mature industrial belt has developed around the southern North Sea, spanning the British, Belgian, Dutch, and Danish coasts, serving both British and international markets. In Poland, Tier 1 contracts are largely secured by foreign firms, though domestic actors are visible in coastal and metropolitan clusters. With further Baltic development, Poland could become a regional supply hub if policy support improves.

Keywords: offshore wind, local content, spatial distribution, supply chain, coastal regions, SEBA

Tomasz Laskowicz [tomasz.laskowicz@ug.edu.pl], University of Gdańsk, Faculty of Economics

Citation

APA: Laskowicz, T. (2025). Spatial distribution of economic benefits from offshore wind development: case studies of Poland and the United Kingdom. Przegląd Geograficzny, 97(4), 405-425. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.4.3
MLA: Laskowicz, Tomasz. "Spatial distribution of economic benefits from offshore wind development: case studies of Poland and the United Kingdom". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 97, no. 4, 2025, pp. 405-425. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.4.3
Chicago: Laskowicz, Tomasz. "Spatial distribution of economic benefits from offshore wind development: case studies of Poland and the United Kingdom". Przegląd Geograficzny 97, no. 4 (2025): 405-425. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.4.3
Harvard: Laskowicz, T. 2025. "Spatial distribution of economic benefits from offshore wind development: case studies of Poland and the United Kingdom". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 97, no. 4, pp. 405-425. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.4.3