History of Poznań railway goes back to the half of the 18^th century.

In the 19^th century Poland did not exist as an independent country. It was divided among the three European powers: Prussia, Austria and Russia. Poznań was incorporated into the Prussian empire and the boarder line between Prussia and Russia ran only several kilometers to the east of Poznań.

The representatives of Poznań and the whole region strongly supported building a railway connection between Poznań and Warsaw, which was still the centre of Polish culture in the Russian-ruled part of Poland. However, the representatives of the Prussian government planned to build the railway network connecting Poznań to Berlin first. According to the plan, the railway track was to run from Poznań to Frankfurt - halfway to Berlin. Finally in 1848, the first railway line was opened from Poznań to Stargard Szczeciński, a town located about 200 kilometers to the north-west of Poznań. It was built by the Railway Society of Stargard and Poznań, of which majority of shares were owned by the merchants from Szczecin and Berlin. The first trip of the Poznań dwellers to Szczecin was rather unlucky because of an infectious disease they brought from there.

The first railway station in Poznań was situated in the (then) Jeżyce suburbs, at today Zwierzyniecka street – only several hundred metres to the west of Kaponiera roundabout, in the town centre.

In 1856, the Poznań-Wrocław railway line was opened with a branch to Frankfurt upon Oder finished in 1870. In 1880 Poznań had railway networks connecting the town to all the bigger towns in the territory of Austria and Russia, except for Warsaw. That connection was blocked due to political reasons until the beginning of the 20^th century. At the end of the 19^th century, the regional railway board was appointed in Poznań, which under changed name has been functioning until present.

After Poland regained independence in 1918, the remained rolling stock was taken over by the Poles according to the Versal Treaty. The Poznań dwellers faced the challenge of rebuilding and completing the railway network. Another obstacle was lack of unified organisational system of the railway. Poznań rebuilt its railway infrastructure very fast, however. In the interwar era, the Central and West railway station were built as well as many local stations in the suburbs, majority of which have been open until present. After 150 years, Poznań became one of the biggest railway junctions in Poland. It results mainly from its geographical location. Within 3 hours you can get from here to Berlin, Warsaw and Wrocław. That is why the town authorities have put great store by rebuilding the central station and the surrounding areas before the Football Championship. The integrated Communication Centre of Central Poznań is to include a railway station, bus station, offices, hotels and shopping centers. The cost of the investment is estimated at 640 million zloty (about 160 Euro). Its completion is scheduled for the second half of 2013.