Łódź is a tram city since 23 December 1898, and was the first city to have electrified trams in Poland.
In the years 1910-1931 suburban tram lines connected many important places around the city, creating the largest such network in Poland, unchanged until the end of the 1980s. In the first half of the 1990s, some of them were closed down, but Łódź is still the only city in the country to have such a system of commuter trams.
Personally, I love trams – the narrowness, the on-and-off and the streetscape they create. I am glad they kept them – and developed them as well!
According to Wikipedia, the Municipal Communication Company of Łódź (MPK), currently operates 16 urban and 4 regional (or suburban) lines. The longest of these, and in fact the longest of all of Poland, is number 46, which has a length of 38 kilometres.
Trivia: Łódź once boasted a small cemetery where tram drivers were buried. Sadly, nothing remains of this graveyard, which was situated on Lindley Street near the aptly named Tram Street (ul. Tramwajowa).
When looking for more facts about the beautiful rainbow station, I came across this interesting blog by Daniel Wright, a freelance transport writer. And he describes it so well:
The Unicorn Stable (Piotrkowska Centrum tram station, Łódź, Poland)
Designed by Warsaw-based architecture practice Foroom, Piotrkowska Centrum is an unusually dramatic piece of tram architecture. If you like Santiago Calatrava’s work on railway stations, then you’ll like this. It has something of the same adventurous spirit and ostentatious engineering, but scaled down to the dimensions of Łódź’s narrow gauge (1,000mm) trams.
Wright claims the design of the station is drawing on the Art Nouveau details to be found on nearby buildings, but also the fact that it remains a practical piece of transport infrastructure.
The original plan had been to use glass panels in the roof, but instead a translucent plastic fabric, ETFE, was used – the same as in the roof at Southern Cross station in Melbourne. It is very light, but also very strong across a wide range of temperatures, making it ideal for Poland’s harsh winters.
This tram station has its own special beauty and a very suitable nickname: “The Unicorn Stable”. When I was a child, unicorns were all-white. These days, for some reason, most unicorns are represented with rainbow tails, and possibly manes, and some even have wings. So if they ever needed stables, this ethereal white structure with multi-coloured ‘glass’ roof would, I admit, be just the thing. In fact…I think I just caught a glimpse of…
Leya 
Brilliant post and images …. you have really dug out the history about Łódź public transport … interesting read about the cemetery. That roof was amazing … the colours you could only see at a distance or standing under it. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much, Viveka. I think we both appreciated it very much!
There is a little more to say about the public transport, so I can give a little information too. *smile
a simply nice life style
😀
Thanks for a wonderful post. I love trams too and living in Adelaide South Australia, we are now putting back all the tram lines that were removed in the mid 20th century.
Congrats on getting them back! Thank you for such positive commenting!
I wish we still had trams in Christchurch. Ours trams are now almost as mythical as the unicorn.
Oh. .a pity, because they somehow add positively to the atmosphere.
I think so, too.
Fascinating story. I also love trams.
Thank you for commenting!
That is a beautiful structure! I can see the Art Nouveau influence and yet it is contemporary. And it is also nice for the citizens of Lodz to have a commuter system such as that. I am heading to Melbourne in a few months and when I get off the bus at Southern Cross Station, I will think of you and the Unicorn Stable in Poland! Thanks A-C!
And I hope you will send some photos and stories as well!
Perhaps. Well there will be a mystery photo and Thursday Proverbial post coming from there, so perhaps I will include those stories then!
Love the station, love the nickname. How nice unicorns all turned multicolored just in time!
😚
Lindley Street? Not very Polish
Does it have to be? Or maybe it is translated.
No, of course nt, and I don’t think it’s translated!
Gorgeous photos!
Thank you – a gorgeous building!