First concrete plans for the creation of a railway line linking Warsaw (which as a result of the
Partitions of Poland for most of the 19th century was under Russian rule as part of the so-called
Congress Poland) with Moscow appeared by the end of the 1850s. In 1864 a
concession was granted to one of the companies interested in the project and construction work began in 1865. In 1866 trains started running on the first-opened segment between Warsaw and
Siedlce, and in 1867 the entire line from Warsaw to Terespol was officially inaugurated. Four years later a bridge was built across the
Bug river along with a long line linking Terespol with
Brest-Litovsk (, today Bierascie in
Belarus), in the part of Poland annexed by Russia earlier in the
Third Partition of Poland, thus connecting the railroad with an existing line running to Moscow. The Warsaw − Terespol railway was the third
railway line to reach Warsaw, following the
Warsaw–Vienna railway in 1845 and
Warsaw – Saint Petersburg railway in 1862. At the time of construction, the whole railway was in Russia, as Warsaw was in the Russian partition of Poland, built to
Russian gauge. The line did not reach Warsaw proper, instead ending in the borough
Praga on the right bank of the
Vistula river, as the time the occupation authorities for strategic purposes blocked the construction of heavy railway bridges across the river. A rail bridge was built later, in 1877, along with the
Vistula River Railroad and the Warsaw Circumferal Line connecting the city's rail terminals. In 1891 the company was nationalized by the Russian government and in 1897 was merged with the Vistula River Railroad. After
World War I started in 1914 the line was largely heavily damaged by the retreating Russians and later partly restored and converted to standard gauge by occupying Germans for military use. It was again briefly switched over to the Russian gauge by Russians during the
Polish-Bolshevik War in 1920. During the
interbellum, in the newly independent
Second Republic of Poland, the rebuilt railway was placed under the administration of the
Polish State Railways which operates the entire national rail network. In 1933 the
Warsaw Cross-City Line was built, along with a tunnel under the city center, directly linking the former Warsaw Terespol rail terminal (now
Warsaw East railway station) with the new
Warsaw Main railway station built in place of the old Warsaw Vienna terminal. In 1937 a segment of tracks from Warsaw to
Mińsk Mazowiecki was electrified. The rest of the line to Terespol, where the post World War II
border between Poland and the Soviet Union was set, was electrified in the 1970s. In the 2000s the entire line was modernized, allowing conventional passenger rail at speed of 160 km/h and heavy freight at 120 km/h. ==Stations==