General Introduction to Public Transport in Poland

Published: 2023-07-22, last modified: 2023-10-15

Public transport in Poland is for sure not the best in the world, but it exists, it works and it works well enough to make various journeys throughout the country. It is also relatively cheap (compared to prices in the western part of Europe). It is for sure not the worst in the world.

All major cities and many smaller towns and villages across Poland are connected by rail (in the western part of the country the network is slightly more extensive than in the eastern part). There are urban transport systems in cities, agglomerations and other municipalities.

Long-distance trains

General information

Long-distance connections are mainly operated by the national carrier, the PKP Intercity (PKP IC or IC) company. They run trains of the EIP (Express InterCity Premium), EIC (Express InterCity), IC (InterCity) and TLK (Twoje Linie Kolejowe – ‘Your Railway Lines’) categories.

EIP trains, running at speeds of up to 200 km/h (but only in single locations in Poland), are the only ones in Poland which can be classified as high-speed trains. They connect Warsaw mainly with Kraków, Katowice and Gdynia. EIC trains, running on selected routes in the country, stop less frequently than IC or TLK and offer a higher standard of travel than these two categories. IC trains are not too different from TLK, although IC is generally the ‘better’ category. For example, on TLK trains you can sometimes find carriages with eight-person compartments or without air conditioning, which is unlikely to happen on IC trains.

EIP train at Warszawa Wschodnia station

In addition to the trains of the PKP Intercity company, there are also single trains of the carriers Leo Express (LEO) and RegioJet (RJ) operating. There are also special extended services of local carriers (often seasonal) on long-distance routes, and occasional trains from time to time.

Each IC and TLK train has its own name, which gives a good representation of their character. As a rule, the trains are not cyclic scheduled, each train is rather separate from the others, with its own name, route and timetable. This improves the probability that one of the trains will be going directly to your destination (or at least close to it), reducing the number of necessary transfers. And this is important because – unfortunately – delays are common on the Polish railway. In 2022, 11.4% of trains and as many as 33.4% of Intercity trains arrived at their destination with a delay of more than 6 minutes (this rate was slightly inflated by the huge evacuation of people from war-stricken Ukraine).

Delayed IC Albatros train

Tickets

Seat reservations are mandatory on some long-distance trains (always, for berths). On others, reservations can be made but are not required. The ticket is always assigned to a specific train and includes a seat reservation for that train, so if you buy a regular ticket (rather than an Interrail ticket, for example), you will automatically receive a seat reservation.

The price of a ticket for long-distance trains generally depends on the distance (after calculation: the greater the distance, the lower the price per kilometre) but can change depending on how busy the train is, how far in advance you buy your ticket, temporary promotions and other factors. Reservation prices, bike fares and similar are fixed and do not depend on the distance travelled.

IC train tickets – seat reservation on a train from Poznań to Berlin, ticket bought at the train conductor, old ticket bought at the ticket office

Tickets can be purchased via mobile apps and on the websites of train operators and ticketing system companies for trains of many different carriers; as well as at ticket offices, ticket machines and even at the train conductor on the train (this does not apply to EIP trains, on others there is usually a supplement). However, some tickets may not be available through specific ticketing channels (details coming soon). The safest way is to use the ticket office at the train station. From around mid-July 2023, most tickets for PKP IC trains can also be purchased on the PKP Intercity app.

Travel conditions

Most long-distance trains offer 1st and 2nd class seats. Both come in both compartment and non-compartment versions. EIP trains are served by modern Pendolino trainsets. Other long-distance trains are mainly carriage trains, but increasingly also modern electric multiple units (EMUs). There are also diesel multiple units on at least two routes in Poland (Kłodzko – Zagórz, Zagórz – Łupków).

Interior of the open coach of an Intercity train

Some of the carriages have compartments for travellers with young children (up to 6 years old), spaces for transporting bicycles, wheelchair accessible compartments and similar facilities. Most carriages and all EMUs have 230V and sometimes USB sockets near the seat.

On some trains you will find restaurant or bar cars or snack trolleys, and on most night trains there are sleeping cars and/or couchettes. There are currently no motorail connections in Poland.

International connections

Before the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, long-distance international trains operated from Poland to all its neighbouring countries, except Slovakia. During the pandemic, connections were reduced, and due to the war there are no connections to Russia and Belarus (however, the number of connections to Ukraine increased).

Currently, Poland has direct long-distance international connections by day and night trains with: Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Ukraine (there are many more day connections than night connections). In addition, there is a day train to Lithuania, which is displayed in search engines and ticketing systems as direct, although in reality it requires a change of trains at Mockava station, near the Polish-Lithuanian border (however, the change is guaranteed by the operators).

Seasonal international night train TLK Pirat from Bohumin (Czech Republic) to Kołobrzeg (Poland, Baltic coast)

Long-distance buses

After World War II, there was one company created in Poland with a monopoly on bus transport – PKS. (PKS is an acronym for ‘Państwowa Komunikacja Samochodowa’ (‘State Automobile Communication’), not to be confused with PKP – an acronym for ‘Polskie Koleje Państwowe’ (‘Polish State Railways’) – a company with a monopoly on rail transport). Both of these state-owned companies were reformed and split into multiple companies – PKP in 2000 and PKS already in 1990. In Poland it is still common (though usually misleading) to use the name PKP for any train and PKS for any long-distance bus. I find the subject of names that no longer officially exist but still function in the popular consciousness extremely interesting, so I will describe it in detail in the future.

Some of the ‘small PKSs’, formed from the division of the ‘one and only PKS’, were liquidated, some were transformed into private companies, and some still exist today. Some destinations, especially tourist ones, still have bus services that connect them to the rest of the world. Buses and minibuses are run by numerous companies (also private, including Flixbus). On some routes the number of connections is satisfying, but on others a small number of connections are offered with the intention of serving local residents (sometimes even only one connection in the morning and one in the afternoon) – or, the opposite, traffic is only run during the tourist season.

Timetable at the bus stop in one of the Greater Poland villages

Individual carriers use their own ticket fares. On routes through smaller towns and villages the ticket can usually be bought from the driver. In larger towns and cities, there are bus stations where you can sometimes find a ticket office. Some operators also sell tickets online. You can check the timetables of many carriers in the e-podróżnik (‘e-traveller’) system (detailed description coming soon!).

Local trains

General information

Local connections are operated by various local government carriers – Koleje Dolnośląskie (KD – ‘Lower Silesian Railways’), Koleje Małopolskie (KMŁ – ‘Lesser Poland Railways’), Koleje Mazowieckie (KM – ‘Masovian Railways’), Koleje Śląskie (KŚ – ‘Silesian Railways’), Koleje Wielkopolskie (KW – ‘Greater Poland Railways’), Łódzka Kolej Aglomeracyjna (ŁKA – ‘Łódź Agglomeration Railway’) – as well as the private Arriva RP (ARR) and the state-owned Polregio (PR).

Regional trains run on most of the lines on which long-distance trains run, as well as on many smaller lines. Most of them stop at all stops along the route – these are trains of the categories R (regio [train]), Os (‘osobowy’ – passenger [train]) and similar.

A regio train (closer) and an Arriva RP passenger train at a station in Bydgoszcz

In addition to regular passenger trains, local operators also run accelerated services – for example OsP (‘osobowy przyspieszony’ – accelerated passenger [train]) or RP (‘regio przyspieszony’ – accelerated regio [train]). Such trains stop less frequently than regular passenger trains, but more frequently than InterCity.

Passenger trains usually need about 30–50% more time than ICs to make the same route, but it is not a rule. There are both trains that need more than twice as much time and regional trains that are faster than IC. Obviously, it will take much longer to travel a long distance on regional trains due to the need to change trains.

Unlike long-distance services, most passenger trains do not have their own name (they only have the number that all trains have), but still they almost never are cyclic scheduled. What is interesting is that trains with shorter routes are much less likely to arrive at their destination delayed.

Tickets

It is generally not possible to book a seat on regional trains. However, various other ticketing limitations apply on some operators, for example a limited number of bicycle tickets on certain trains.

The price of a ticket on regional trains depends on the distance (after calculation: the greater the distance, the lower the price per kilometre) and does not change over time, meaning it doesn’t depend on how far in advance you buy it. Fees for carrying bicycles, additional luggage and similar are fixed and do not depend on the distance travelled.

Various tickets for passenger and regional trains

The ticket is usually not assigned to a specific train, but has its own time validity. Most people, however, do not pay attention to this and think that the ticket is only valid on the train leaving at the specified time. There is nothing wrong with this, as it often happens to be actually true – when the travel time on the next train on the chosen route may be longer than the validity of the ticket.

Tickets can be bought on apps and websites of carriers and train ticketing companies, at ticket offices, ticket machines and even from the conductor on the train. In this last case, a supplement applies, but not always (details coming soon – but in general, the supplement never applies if it was not possible to buy the ticket at the station). However, some tickets may not be available through specific ticketing channels, and additional promotions may apply (details coming soon). The safest way, although not always the cheapest, is to use the ticket office at the station.

There are a lot of special offers that allow you to travel on the trains of particular carriers at a lower cost. I will describe the most important ones here soon.

Travel conditions

Regional connections are usually operated with electric or diesel multiple units or railbuses, but there are also some carriage trains. As a rule, only second-class seats are available on the trains that operate these services. I have never found a compartment car on a local train.

On local trains there is usually a designated space for bicycles. In my opinion there is often not enough of it in high season, but this is changing – for example: Polregio regularly attaches a carriage with space that can accommodate a lot of bicycles to Gdynia – Hel trains in the summer season, and Koleje Dolnośląskie has a carriage adapted exclusively for bicycles, attached to some trains on the Wrocław – Sobótka – Świdnica route.

Carriage with extra space for bicycles on a regio train to Hel

As a rule, there are no restaurant or bar cars on regional trains. An exception is the Kamieńczyk train, running on the Poznań – Wrocław – Szklarska Poręba route, which has a ‘caféREGIO’ restaurant car. In modern passenger trains, a USB and/or 230V socket is available to the passenger. Most trains are wheelchair accessible.

Interior of one of the newer Koleje Dolnośląskie trains

Cross-border connections

Local cross-border connections are usually operated by a Polish carrier in cooperation with a foreign carrier. Usually the connection terminates at the first station behind or in front of the border, fortunately there is also usually a train to the same station from the other side of the border.

The largest number of points at which it is possible to cross the border by local train is at the German-Polish border – between 6 and 13, depending on the counting method (more on that soon! – it is more or less about the difference between ‘points where the train crosses the border’ and ‘stations where it is possible to reach from across the border and travel further into Poland’, and should I count seasonal connections?). Then there is the Polish-Czech border – 5 to 11 places, the Polish-Slovak border – 1 place with whole-year and 1 with seasonal connections… And that’s all. None of the local cross-border connections with other countries.

The railway station in Zwardoń – the only year-round Polish-Slovak railway border crossing

In addition, I counted 19 places along the Polish border that can be reached by train, but… only from one side of the border – because on the other side the tracks are either disused or removed. Usually Poland is the other side, unfortunately. I will soon describe all these places in a separate article.

Urban transport

Railways and derivatives

There is an urban rail network (known as ‘szybka kolej miejska’ (SKM) in Polish) in Warsaw (in Polish: Warszawa) and in the Tricity (in Polish: Trójmiasto, including Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot). The urban railway in the Tricity is the PKP Szybka Kolej Miejska w Trójmieście (‘Rapid Urban Railway in the Tricity’ – SKMT or PKP SKM), in Warsaw the Szybka Kolej Miejska w Warszawie (‘Rapid Urban Railway in Warsaw’ – SKM or SKMW) and the Warszawska Kolej Dojazdowa (‘Warsaw Commuter Railway’ – WKD).

A regional train (closer) and a Tricity SKM train (further) approaching the station in Sopot simultaneously

Some Polish cities decide to create ‘metropolitan railways’, ‘agglomeration railways’ and similar things, but in reality these are simply differently named regional connections. Still, this doesn’t change the fact that they can be a very important part of a city’s transport and/or mainly be used by commuters.

In some places in Poland there are narrow gauge railways, which are usually mainly a tourist attraction, but can also have transport value. In the small town of Pleszew there is the SKPL-operated Pleszewska Kolej Lokalna (‘Pleszew Local Railway’), which provides daily commuting from the town centre to the railway station for long-distance and regional trains.

Warsaw has the only metro network in Poland, consisting of two lines. In Poznań, there is the only pre-metro, which is a grade-separated tram route adapted for possible future conversion to a metro – Poznański Szybki Tramwaj (the ‘Poznań Fast Tram’ – PST, popularly known as ‘Pestka’, which means stone fruit seed). A traffic-separated fast tram system also exists in Szczecin (Szczeciński Szybki Tramwaj – ‘Szczecin Fast Tram’ – SST), and a third fast tram system is in operation in Kraków (Krakowski Szybki Tramwaj – ‘Kraków Fast Tram’ – KST).

Trams

Tram on line 2 in Poznań

There are a total of 15 tram networks in Poland. Of this number, 13 networks are within the administrative boundaries of their respective cities – these are the networks in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, Szczecin, Bydgoszcz, Częstochowa, Toruń, Olsztyn, Gorzów Wielkopolski, Elbląg and Grudziądz – but not the other two.

The tram system in the Łódź agglomeration had a centre in Łódź, but it extended far beyond the city boundaries. Trams travelled from Łódź to: Ozorków, about 28 km to the north of the centre, Tuszyn, about 23 km to the south, Pabianice, about 18 km to the south-west, and other nearby towns. Today, unfortunately, the Łódź tram network is in a terrible state. Suburban lines are either impassable or decommissioned, with the exception of two: the line to Zgierz and the newly renovated (opened 1 July 2023) line to Pabianice.

The main problem is that smaller towns cannot afford tram maintenance (especially expensive infrastructure repairs), and according to Polish law these towns should be responsible for this task.

Tram on line number 7 with a temporarily changed route in Łódź

The last tram network is in Silesia – in the Upper Silesian Conurbation (in Polish ‘konurbacja górnośląska’ or ‘Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowska Metropolia’ – Metropolis GZM), a group of fused industrial cities in the southern part of Poland. This network does not have the same problems as the one in Łódź, as it mainly covers large cities that are able to finance tram transport. As a result, it manages to maintain the largest tram network in Poland, covering as many as 13 cities and towns!

Road transport

There are only three trolleybus networks in Poland, which makes such vehicles a kind of curiosity on a countrywide scale. It is used to say that trolleybuses run in Lublin, Tychy and Gdynia, while this last system actually extends through the whole of Sopot up to the border of Gdańsk (however, it still operates mainly within Gdynia).

Trolleybus in Gdynia

There are also bus services in all the cities mentioned (I think), as well as in many, many other places. In large cities they are a natural complement to the tram, in small towns they are the core of transport. In at least two places in Poland it is also possible to travel by public transport bus abroad!

A public bus in the 70,000-population city of Inowrocław

Around many cities in Poland, there are functional networks of suburban buses, allowing commuters to reach the city from the surrounding municipalities. Transport managers usually conclude agreements between each other introducing a common ticket tariff for urban and suburban lines in the entire agglomeration.

There are an increasing number of municipalities deciding to organise transport within their area, even though they are not directly adjacent to any large city. Municipal transport can, for example, take passengers to the railway station or simply transport between settlements. Such transport usually doesn’t go beyond the boundary of the municipality, unfortunately. However, if they are connected to the railway, they can provide not only a means of daily transport for citizens, but also an opportunity for tourists to visit smaller villages.

Bus and tram tickets in Poland

Unfortunately, there is no common ticketing system covering all cities in Poland. The most popular solutions include ticket machines, mobile apps, ticket sales points and, in smaller towns, buying a ticket from the bus driver. It also happens that transport is completely free. Also, the possibility to buy a ticket with a credit or debit card directly on board the vehicle is becoming more common. It is not possible to shortly summarise all possible options.

Various single tickets for public transport in Poznań

Detailed information on ticket buying will be provided in separate articles on this website. I will also create a clear comparison of the various apps available, allowing you to see which one functions best. Separately, I will describe the Jakdojade app, which allows users to search for public transport connections in major cities in Poland and buy tickets for some of them (the application is available in Polish and English, but the Jakdojade website only in Polish). These descriptions you will find here soon!

Summary

Travelling by public transport in Poland does not differ much from that in other European countries. What may come as a surprise to some is the non-cyclic schedule or no common ticketing system. However, these are not difficulties that cannot be overcome – especially if you equip yourself with information from abzpp.com!

– Abz. (Poznań, Poland)