First day of ZTM's new ticketing system marred by passenger protests

The offices of Warsaw's municipal transport authorities (ZTM) were crowded with hundreds of people yesterday, demanding tickets for the city's public transport system. The chaos followed ZTM's introduction yesterday of a new ticketing system. However, the new tickets were unavailable in the majority of Warsaw's kiosks, and passengers were also complaining that some kiosk ma nagers had decided not to sell 30- and 90-day tickets. Despite the outcry, ZTM officials could not see any problem with getting a ticket. "They have b een delivered to 1,000 Ruch, Jard-Press, Kolporter and other larger kiosks, so there's no need for people to queue in ZTM offices," said company spokes person Beata Bielawska. She said she suspected that passengers were simply afraid of buying forged tickets, as recently many fake 30-day tickets have appeared in a few of the city's kiosks. (Zycie, p. 7) A.Z.