Ticket controllers in public transportation vehicles in Poland

I've heard there are "ticket controllers" in Polish public communication vehicles, like public buses, trams, or trains. They can fine people if they don't have tickets and the controllers have no badges and look like passengers. They can call the police if you don't want to pay the fine.

Is it true? Why do they allow to get into the vehicle without a ticket in the first place?

Yes that's true. But they don't come often. You don't buy tickets on the bus, you buy them in a budka ruchu or you can have a pass and there are machines installed on the busses and tramways where you stick your ticket in and it punches holes in it. And if you don't punch your ticket and the controller comes you will have trouble.

But most people have tickets and punch them because they are not expensive.

Yes...

What if I simply forget to punch ticket?

you will pay about 100 zlotys

you can't forget it. if you use public transport every day you know the rules and abide by them (of course they are people who don't buy tickets on purpose and they hope they will get away with it).

if you are staying in a polish city longer and you are afraid you would forget to punch the ticket you can buy a bus pass (valid a week, month or three months)

What if you simply forget to pay ur tax? I recommend taking a taxi, then u will definitely not 'simply forget' to pay the fare

But she's writing from a tourist-point of view, isn't she. It's not a Polish-style "welcoming" tradition to fine passengers without tickets. They should not allow to enter the vehicle without a ticket and there wouldn't be any problems. Why don't we have ticket controllers in planes?

it's faster when everybody can get on and off at once.. there could be a couple dozen or more people getting on or off at ony one stop.

Yes like in San Francisco. What a mess it is getting on a bus there. 20 or so people waiting in line to get on the bus from the front. Takes almost 5-10 minutes each stop if it's rush hour. It's a mess. The polish system is based more on the honor code I guess. Don't be cheap and buy a ticket. There are signs in Polish that say this. Trams now have pictures basically showing stamping a ticket. Most people have tickets or a pass. It's not expensive. One note though is make sure to buy tickets prior to Sunday. Most shops aren't open on Sunday.

It is very rare but they used to exist. It is so easy just to jump on and off buses without a ticket. I was on a tram once late at night and they asked to see my ticket in Kraków and they checked the ticket and the marks made in it by the stamping machine.

basically its simple, buy a ticket, get it punched. Though i must admit i forgot once as i was late for work, the buggers got me, but it was like my second day in Poland and i couldnt speak any polish, nor could they speak English, so they let me go.

next time I won't have ticket I would pretend I don't speak Polish heh

Not really. The moment a controller(s) board the bus/tram the passengers can exit only through some of the exists, and that's where their tickets are checked. On some buses the driver could also remotely lock the stamping machine so that if a person didn't stamp their ticket they couldn't do it the last minute.

I think all the machines are electronic now and print acurately date and time but in those days they were funny mechanical things that stamped through the paper an image of various dots. Very confusing.

On the trams i was on in Wroclaw last week the machines were the old mechanical ones punching through the ticket. Got away without paying once as the machines for buying tickets near the tram line were broken.

I've been living in Krakow for more than 4 years, and in the past I have been caught ticketless by the controllers a couple of times. It's not a pleasant experience. These guys (and they are always men) often resemble football hooligans, and will not stop at physically restraining someone who doesn't have a ticket and wants to bolt. Once I got away with paying nothing - didn't speak Polish and refused to accompany them to the bankomat. Another time I paid a bribe of 20 złoty which they accepted. But that was a long time ago and now I don't really see there is an excuse for not having a ticket. New ticket vending machines (funded by the EU) have popped up all over the city, and you can choose an English menu to buy your ticket. Plus there is the new 'Krakowska Karta Miejska' and you can buy monthly tickets at the machines without having to spend ages in a long queue at the office. Anything is better than that sinking feeling when you are ticketless in the tram and the controllers strike!

My sister once forgot her pass when she was coming home from school in Krakow. So the controller followed her home. He was a big mean guy and he wanted my dad to pay a fine. But my dad got mad and showed him my sisters pass and wouldn't pay the fine because she had the pass. So after a while the guy left.

I could never really understand why under Communism, the tickets being so very cheap as they were, why they did not just have a free transport service altogether around town. In towns you had to buy tickets, if you could get them from the little kiosks on the street for two old zlotys a time. A total waste of time.

Lots of things under Communism were a total waste of time. Today ticket sales go a long way towards financing public transport in Polish cities - and that's a whole lot better than most American cities, I must say.

I have lived in Poland for over two years and all ticket inspectors I have come across have had badges, none of them look like football hooligans and they are always polite. If people try to bolt surely it is their job to stop them.

When I did get caught without my pass. I did get fined but they went to great lengths to explain how I could get a refund by producuing my pass at their office.

The transport is good and a lot cheaper than England.

There was a case last year that ticket controllers broke some guy's hands because he didn't have a ticket. They are not always nice. Sometimes they are very not nice.

Like over the world, there sometimes bad experience, anyway I don`t see its bad with controlling tickets sometimes than every time while getting in the bus.

I usually traveling by tram without the ticket. But I traveling seldom, however in Poznań a punishments become more expensive (few hundrets zlotys). I have to dispose of my habits, I don`t want to take a risk.