According to a comment on Trip Advisor:
My wife and I went by train from Krakow to Oswiecim this year. It IS very slow as some have suggested, but if you’ve used trains around Poland you’ll know that this is the general pattern anyway, IC “TLK” trains excepted. After travelling on a modern Czech train from Prague over the border to Katowice (with delicious meal of Goulash served at the seat by a charming and friendly hostess) the Katowice to Krakow train was a whole different kettle of fish, and the Krakow to Oswiecim service uses the same basic loop of lines (Trzebinia to Krakow was common to both) for much of it, as well as the same slow and hard-seated trains. As has been suggested before, there are toilets on the train (just as well for the journey time!) but no refreshments, and no first class accommodation either in many (but not all) cases. (Note to smokers: generally the whole train piles out at Trzebinia for a ciggie and a stretch of legs).
Slow going, yes – but also fascinating, as almost the whole journey, once you leave Krakow and the suburbs, is a completely different experience for those used to French/German/Swiss – even the less flashy commuter end of Italian – standard of European railways: stations that are literally in the middle of nowhere and those using them have to traipse miles over fields and cross umpteen overgrown disused lines to stand on the few square metres of basic tarmac that counts as a station. Others with more of a station that is either red rusty or falling to bits. Factories, clearly abandoned, where once there was work, line the tracks. Dozens upon dozens of overgrown lines with just one in each direction still used.
I’d say those who are visiting Auschwitz and thus have a social/political history interest would find the railway journey fascinating. The chilling reminder of the Nazi regime at the museum contrasted with the decaying remains of Communist Europe that followed, just from looking out the window.
