Poland had a complicated history, in some eras, the neighbouring nations simply split up its territory, so at the beginning of the 19th century Poland simply didn't exist: at the current area of Poland, Russia, the Habsburg Empire and Prussia has expanded its borders. Silesia had been a Prussian territory and the Germans made use of the coal to be found deep in this area, bringing economic growth to Silesia.
That caused many of the settlements here to rapidly grow its population. Previously Bytom was the centre of the area as it was the town of the local liege lord, but the economy was focusing in Gliwice, the biggest settlement. In the beginning, Katowice had been a minuscule village - in the end, it became the capital of the voivodenship of Silesia. Silesia is the Voivodenship of the greatest population density in all Poland.
This developing area quickly developed cities that required tram lines to be created - the only problem was that it was not easy to decide where the trams should be developed. Initially, steam tramways were built connecting all the emerging towns and all villages lying between them, this way helping the creation of an area that grew together; the Katowice Metropolitan Area was born.
Of this, Bytom takes only a small share, as its industries have reduced themselves to a bare minimum, so nowadays Bytom has a cityscape which is far less favourable than what the other big Silesian cities have. It has an extensive historical centre though, and there is a special tramway, tramway number 38.
Running only 1.3 km, it could be considered insignificant, but this line is actually quite important to enthusiasts. It is not Interurban, it is only running inside Bytom town. It is not double tracked, it does not even have a passing loop. All modern vehicles have evaded this line so far, and this is why it has become this important: a classic vehicle.
The Konstal class N is a two-axle after WWII Polish-built car manufactured in Chorzów and still in use on line 38. The company wanted to shut down the line many years ago, but protests caused the company to recall a few class N trams to service.
Class N, but it sounds dull - but how many two-axled trams serve regular duties in Europe now? Not many. Probably none. So when the new, low-floor, short trams arrive in Bytom, something which is the last in Europe, is going to be gone.
This line is single-track, only connected to the Silesian network at one point for depot runs. The line has no passing loops, but runs between two churches, in the run, connects about half a dozen cemeteries, and religion is extremely important to Polish people. On occasions, a double tram runs - after this year's reconstruction a passing loop is going to be built in the middle of the run.
When the new cars arrive, they are going to serve the line almost every day - low floor, ugly, boring vehicles. But on most of the weekends, the old cars are going to run, keeping up the heritage of tramline 38. And that matters a lot to me.
Good news! They don't plan on changing the line anymore. I live in Bytom, and I can assure you, the people in this city don't want any changes to the tram models, nor do they want changes to the line (such as extending it). Nothing's changed and it's still a hidden gem :)
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