by the provincial conservator of monuments (2019). was added between 2015 and 2016. Warsaw Central was constructed as a flagship project of the
Polish People's Republic during the 1970s economic boom, and was intended to replace the inadequate and obsolete
Warszawa Główna railway station. The station's design was innovative, but construction was plagued by continuous alterations to the scope of work which in turn hurt functionality and operations upon completion. It was a result of a hasty completion schedule, with the opening date set to coincide with
Leonid Brezhnev's 1975 visit to Warsaw. The design and construction problems necessitated immediate repairs that would continue through the 1980s. The structure was fairly advanced for its time and incorporated such features as
automatic doors, as well as
escalators and double-sided
elevators for each platform. Moreover, each platform was equipped with WC, public telephones and glazed waiting rooms with television sets and central heating system. The edges of the platforms were backlit, but this feature was later removed. There was also a marble fountain, which was also later removed. All benches are made of white
marble. The station was one of only a handful of public buildings in Warsaw which suffered a technical fault as a result of the
millennium bug. The
indicator board was switched off for approximately 24 hours on 1 January 2000 while its timing chip was replaced. In the meantime, all departures were announced over the
public address system. The normal practice is for only international departures to be announced in this way. The story was originally reported in
Gazeta Wyborcza on 4 January 2000. After a period of decline, a cosmetic upgrade of the station in 2010–2011 was completed in time for the
Euro 2012 championships. Between 2015 and 2016, a
mezzanine connecting the waiting room in the west wing to the restaurants in the east wing was constructed. It has been both praised for improving the use of space in the main hall and criticized for its futuristic design, which clashes with the building's modernist architecture. The Warsaw city government is contemplating demolishing and replacing the station, either at the same location or farther from the city center. Some elements of the Warsaw press (e.g. Gazeta Wyborcza and Architektura Murator, 2012), as well as Swiss architect and journalist Werner Huber, have argued against demolition, claiming that the current Warszawa Centralna is a great example and a masterpiece of
modernism in Poland. The station is fully accessible to the disabled as well as passengers with heavy luggage. == Location ==