Red Tape Hot Box The challenges of train travel

We've written and complained about PKP policies and service several times in the Hot Box, and resolved not to do it again. However, at the risk of being accused of harbouring some secret vendetta against our poor railway company, we're going to break that promise.

A rock music fan is the most current PKP victim that we've heard of. He recently wanted to go to the small town of Żary to attend Europe's biggest rock festival, Przystanek Woodstock. Knowing that the turnout would be huge (it was, in fact, around 300,000 people), he decided to take an evening train to Żary to get a jump on the other fans, most of whom would be leaving the next day, which was the day of the concert. He bought a ticket in advance and relaxed. Then, sitting at home a few hours before he was scheduled to leave, he heard on the radio that the last train from Warsaw to Żary had just left. He thought it had to be a mistake, but went to the train station anyway.

It turned out that, in fact, that was the last train to Żary. The next one was the following day, and that was exactly the one that he had tried to avoid in the first place. What's more, the train that he had bought a ticket for wasn't even on the schedule! The lady in the ticket office took one look at his ticket and told him that, frankly, no such train existed; she then sent him to the information desk. Not surprisingly, the lady there said that she wasn't the one who had issued the ticket, and sent him back to the ticket-office. Need we say that the beleaguered rock fan was getting angrier by the second?

The ticket lady must have noticed, because she came up with a solution: he could go on the morning train with his evening ticket. Well, going the next day was the very last thing that he wanted to do. He had bought a ticket for the evening before the rush, and so he wanted to go that evening, and he demanded that the lady get him to Żary as planned. The computer system at the station is actually pretty good, and so in no time he had a list of possible ways to get there. Then he wanted to return his ticket and get his money back. No problem, except that when you return your ticket, PKP takes 10% of its value: a fine of sorts, for buying a ticket and then not using it. You can imagine the young man's reaction when he was told this bit of news ...

Finally, he was allowed to go that evening on his evening ticket. The head of the ticket office wrote a note on the back of the ticket allowing him to take any train, and, by changing trains a few times, he managed to get to Żary that night. What we want to know is this: what happened to all those other people who bought tickets for the train that didn't exist?

Secretly, we hope there was an onslaught of hardcore rock fans, demanding that their tickets be honored.