Europe - Rail travel in Poland - dangerous ?...

There seems to have been a lot written about rail travel in Poland having been dangerous in the past (night trains) but much safer now.

I may have to catch a train from Bydgoszcz to Torun - at 0400 or so - on a Saturday night.... Is that perhaps not a smart think to do ?

Apart from the fact, that you'll be the only passenger in this train, you should be perfectly fine.

I'd be far more worried about taking a train in Chicago at 4am than Poland....

I'd be far more worried about taking a train in Chicago at 4am than Poland....

Same here.
I've taken night trains before and never had issues. Just play it smart - don't flash money or that your a foreigner and I think you should be fine.

I spent six weeks in Poland last Sept/Oct and traveled alone by train from one corner to the other at all times of day and night. Never did I feel unsafe. I found rail travel there to be exceptionally inexpensive as well.

There seems to have been a lot written about rail travel in Poland having been dangerous in the past (night trains) but much safer now.

I may have to catch a train from Bydgoszcz to Torun - at 0400 or so - on a Saturday night.... Is that perhaps not a smart think to do ?

I've never felt unsafe on "Polski Bahn", and I've traveled on overnight trains between Warsaw/Wroclaw and the occasional 4am train. A lot of the train cars have the old-style compartments, so you sometimes have to use better judgement when looking at who your seatmates will be. But there are some other issues with the rail service: You generally have to buy your ticket from a counter; I've only seen automated machines at the Wroclaw station (and that was only for the IR trains). And since there are 3 main types of trains (EIC/TLK/IR) it is very important about indicating the exact train you will be traveling on. Because if you buy a ticket for an IR train, and end up taking a TLK train (for example), you will have to purchase an entirely new ticket from the conductor. There is no price difference surcharge like there is on Deutsche Bahn.

And most importantly, bring patience. The trains are very slow and are often delayed. In fact, I can't remember the last time a took a long train ride in Poland and got to my destination less than 15 minutes late. They are doing a lot of rail infrastructure work right now in preparation for the Euro Games in June. But the upside is that tickets are very cheap. Especially for the TLK and IR trains.