Trams reach Wilanow, but slower than promised. The green wave should start this autumn

Trams have run regularly to Miasteczko Wilanów since October 29, 2024. The new, six and a half kilometer route runs from the intersection of Puławska and Goworka through Belwederska, Jana III Sobieskiego and Aleja Rzeczypospolitej, with twelve new stops along the way, up to the Miasteczko Wilanów terminus. Lines 14 and 16 serve it, and the second one continues on to Bielany.

Almost two years after opening, the route still does not work as promised. The eight kilometers between Wilanów and the Centrum metro station now take a tram about 31 minutes to cover, instead of the promised 25. The reason is simple. The route still lacks the full, target traffic arrangement with priority for trams at every intersection.

When will the green wave actually start

The so called green wave, a system that gives trams priority at traffic lights, was supposed to start working at the turn of the first and second quarter of 2026. That deadline has already passed. The new one, now given by the city, is autumn 2026. In April, priority was working at four intersections, another four were planned to launch in May, and three more were being prepared for rollout. The entire route has more than thirty signaled intersections and crossings, so full coverage is still a way off.

At the same time the city is planning the route further, not just fixing what already exists. Tramwaje Warszawskie signed an agreement with the investor Morelia Investments to prepare documentation for extending the tracks by about half a kilometer toward ul. Uprawna, the area where the planned retail and park complex Wilanów Park is set to be built. As part of that investment, a land reserve is meant to be created, a strip of ground for future tracks that will not be laid yet but will already have somewhere to go.

Further down the line, a metro is meant to reach Wilanów too. In February 2026 geologists began soil surveys along the route of the future fourth line, a more than twenty six kilometer route from Białołęka through nine districts all the way to Wilanów, covering twenty three stations, including two in the Wilanów area whose exact locations have not yet been set. Preparatory work for the whole line is meant to finish in November 2027, and construction of the first section, in Białołęka, will not start before the 2030s at the earliest. A metro will realistically not reach Wilanów for another twenty years or so. For now, there is the tram, and patience for the green wave.