Red Tape Hot Box on bikes and trains
Summer is here (though, unfortunately, lacking in summery weather this year) and many people are planning their holidays. One of the most popular ways to actively spend your free time is cycling. If I could recommend anything, one week in Zakopane or Karpacz with a bicycle would be it. However, one must get there somehow. No problem if you have a car, but many, including most college students, do not own one and they have to travel by train. Yes - PKP once again. They just seem to keep on delivering subjects and stories.
To get on a train with a bicycle you have to pay an extra fee, obviously. Before you load your bike on the train, the conductor will remind you that all bicycles must be stored either at the front of the first car or at the back of the last one, so as not to inconvenience passengers moving around the train. Good thinking. Unfortunately, there must be some communication problem between the clerks who book tickets and the conductors, because usually during the summer every train has about 20 people with bicycles trying to get on. Not all of the bikes can fit in the two reserved places. They also can't be refused on the train because they have bought tickets both for themselves and for their bikes. So they are allowed in and take up all the free space in the corridors and between cars. Sometimes, in order to use the toilet (which happens to be located at the end of each car), you end up four cars further down the train. So much for a nice and comfortable ride.
One might think that the introduction of special baggage-cars would solve the problem. As a matter of fact, PKP has those cars at their disposal. However, they are rarely used on trains that are heading for major tourist centers. A friend of mine came across this kind of railcar, and it didn't look the way one would expect a baggage-car to look. In fact, it looked just like any other car, only the compartments were filled with postal packages, boxes, cases and so on, instead of being filled with people. But leaving your bicycle there is definitely more convenient than standing with it in a regular railcar. There is even a guard who looks after the passengers' property. You are required to fill out two pieces of paper concerning your bike. Nice, but one of those papers ends up around the bike's frame and the other in the guard's notebook. What about a document for the owner? None. Generally speaking, if the bike was stolen, there is no way to prove that it was ever on the train... So either you risk your property and choose the baggage-car, or you can always get into an ordinary railcar and block the toilet for a couple of hours - and, of course, listen to the conductor's complaints that this is a passenger train, not a baggage-car.
Red tape bugging you? Tell Michał about it at em.pakul@wp.pl
