Weird and wonderful Polish train fares

You said it yourself really back in post #56. Rail diverted away from towns for the freight companies. It's just not convenient to travel by rail in the US even within state. Easier to drive or fly. Rail transport in the US is primarily used for freight, whereas in Poland and Europe it's an essential and much used form of travel.

How I count like 4 train changes, unless u were doing a tour of europe.

About 4. Two long stretches and a couple of short ones. They send you notifications on your phone about the percentage probability of making the connection.

@amiga500
Thinking about it, it was 3 though there was an option of 4. One at almost the Dutch/German border, one just after. These were small trains. A change to a bigger train than a change to the Berlin Warsaw express at Gesundbrunnen. Really tight changing times, only a few minutes to change platforms. I left 11 ish and got to Wawa about 12 hours later. About 150 euros as I remember with unlimited baggage and a comfortable journey.

The Polish railways are a joke!

The Billboards have a mass of incomprehensible logos attached to each departure, some trains run,say twice a day at 8am and 8pm but the 8pm service does not run on,say,Thursdays.....why?

The women and it's mainly women in the ticket offices are miserable,unhelpful cows who if you ask for advice tend to point at the billboard!

There are some discounts to be had, but if you don't know about them the ticket vendor will not tell you about them and charge you the full fare!

I have travelled a lot across Europe,mainly by car,but often by train and my worst train experiences have been in Poland.

my pet peeve is the peron/tor thing, time to change to western standards and just have a single number for each platform.


Please explain.


All the more reason for open access to the railways.

The little emblems they have after the train details that tell you, for example that it has been delayed or cancelled.

You have to flirt with them or pretend to be a political bigwig.

That's a bit..........worrying!


I've never had a single problem apart from almost missing a connection in Chełm. Book online before you go to make things a bit easier. The billboards are easy enough to understand too. My worst experiences have been in the UK. I've had a fair few cancellations that have left me stranded.

Honestly, I highly rate the Polish rail system.

Who did you book with for such cutting edge cross border ticketing features?

Dutch State Railways as I remember. On their website. You can book the Dutch, German and Polish parts of the journey on one ticket. The notifications came as a surprise.

It was pretty good and I'll maybe do it again.

One nice thing is that both Deutsche Bahn and WARS have good restaurant cars which makes the journey better.

Poland should offer what Germany does which is unlimited train travel for the summer for $52.
Quote:
"The new Germany Ticket (aka Deutschland-Ticket or D-Ticket for short) allows customers to use all local and regional trains as well as buses and metros throughout the country for a mere 49 euros ($52.63 as of late May) per month.

Only long-distance intercity trains are excluded from the deal."
This would be a tourist draw for Poland.

It's 49 Euros per month for local trains and buses.

You need to take out a recurring subscription but can cancel at any time.

Right now, it can be a lot cheaper to book Polish trains via Deutsche Bahn. It doesn't work for all routes but does for some. I did this last month. Booking some tickets via DB were almost half the price of booking them on PKP.

Family member tried to book a train ticket Poznan to Warsaw a day before, nothing available, not even connections. In the end a 300 dollar flight on Lot. Let RegioJet/Leo Express into polish railway system now! Enough of bloated state monopoly!

If they drove they could have rented a car for 80 pln plus 100pln max for gas/ins,would be way cheaper,quicker and convenient.

not quicker than a flight, not convenient finding a rental and returning it, also once u add up the toll highways owned by a post communist oligarch family not that cheap.

Keep your filthy cars out of the polish rail thread.!

What do you mean weren't available? Sold out or what?

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Of course sold out

@amiga500
Well that happens. With every form of transport. It means though that rail is good enough for people to buy out.

Hard to believe though that all the connections, including local ones, are sold out.