on trains

I never said that Polish railways are good. All i can say about it is that they're absurd. Unfortunately i happen to live in a country when many things are absurd but railways are definitely most annoying to me. What can be weirder than trains slower than 100 years before and two different companies for passenger transport? 

maybe the fact that two trains provided by one company, on the exact same route, what is more, of the same kind (called TLK which can be translated as low cost railways) go through that route in 3 hrs (train A) and 6 hrs (train B). Train A doesn't stop anywhere between Krakow and Warsaw, train B has about 4 stops. And yet the price is the same.

I won't say anything about comfort, it just doesn't deserve that. but after years of using PKP (honestly, only because i have no choice) i still don't understand why all the trains are so short. going home for Christmas or Easter is a disaster. hundreds of people in three or four carriages sitting or standing almost one on another... and of course no one would check the tickets because it's impossible to move there. the same thing with train we're going by right now. train from Olsztyn to Krakow (600 km as it says on the ticket), during summer holidays and only four carriages. including one reserved for kids from a summer camp, one 1st class (the only difference except the price is that they have six people in one compartment and we have eight). which means a hundred of people sitting in the corridor hoping to get a seat on the nearest station. oh. i've almost forgotten about compartments reserved for mothers with children. it doesn't matter that there's no woman with children and people promise to get out if such a woman appears, the compartments are constantly locked.

if you don't want to pay more for quite pleasant journey in express or IC/EC (which happen to be two or three times more expensive), be prepared for long and rather tiring adventure with PKP. actually, PKP alone could be the subject of a separate blog. let's call it Road to Nowhere.