Bad wagon, bikes on seats and gears. This journey was given to me by PKP Intercity

Do you reserve a specific place for yourself on the PKP Intercity train and you think that it will definitely be waiting for you? You can count – just like me and many other passengers. Does the seat reservation system only work selectively and seemingly? I don’t know. I have found out a few times that something is limping on one of the routes. A few days ago it was extremely unpleasant. I bought a place in a bicycle car, but it did not exist. Later I had to run a bit, and finally I learned a few interesting things from your conductor.

With bike and stress at PKP Intercity

Start of travel – Warsaw Eastern. It was on the platform that I set myself in anticipation of the train. He arrived planned, but he did not move, all because of the confusion. I was there with luggage and bike – this is the beginning of summer, so the sight of passengers traveling with a two -wheeler is not surprising. Other cyclists stood next to me, wanting to get on this train.

I am talking about the PKP IC 110 Silesia train heading towards Czech Bohumin. I did not plan to get off at the last station, but in Rybnik, yet I was waiting for about 4 hours of driving, so I booked a place for myself a month earlier, so that the journey would definitely be comfortable. She wasn’t, and certainly not fully.

My wagon is missing

The problem was that my wagon number 350 did not even have one bicycle space, although it was supposed to have one. You pay for such. I booked them online in the PKP Intercity system, which enabled such a choice of place. Everything would be unbearable if train employees were prepared, that such a situation would occur – they warned, they apologized. The conductors who went out to the platform were, however, surprised. Initially, they had no idea what to say and spread their hands. One of the men began to check something in the system and said that there is no bicycle car here, because something was mistaken. Then he went to check how many places there was in the compartments – it was a train only with compartments and narrow corridors. He stated that some bikes could fit there, hinting that he was going to “figure out”.

“Maybe there is a place for bicycles in another wagon and I will go to him?” – I’m asking. Mr. Condator informed me that I could and that such places are in the first and last wagon. So I ran to the last – stressed that I would not make it, because apart from bicycle passengers, everyone was already sitting in anticipation of departure. It turned out that it was the same narrow wagon with ranges without bicycle hooks. So I ran from the last to the first wagon, hoping that something else was waiting for me, but I was disappointed again. I saw that the bicycles of the other passengers, Mr. Konder simply put in the compartments in the wagon 350, i.e. the one in which I had a reservation. I stayed in the first to not run again. After all, the first and last – according to the conductor – was to be bicycle!

I stood in the passage and my bike partly in the toilet. I couldn’t even let other people who wanted to get in. At the next station, many people had to explain why I was standing there, which exposed me to additional discomfort. I couldn’t sit down, I couldn’t leave the two -wheeler because it would be dangerous. I drove one station to Central Warsaw, and another surprise. At some point, Mr. Conductor returned after me, asking me to move to the wagon 350, because he is the “bicycle”. The PKP employee was polite and helped to take things, but couldn’t he inform me about it right away?

I had enough. Running, wearing, translating and the beginning of this journey. More passengers with bicycles appeared at the Central Station and a large group got together. The train employee brought our bicycles to the wagon and placed in the range side by side – the bikes were placed on the seats, those on which passengers later sit. In total, they stood in four compartments. In one passengers sat with a bike placed among themselves.

There are many questions

In the situation in which I found myself, many questions arose, but also anger. Anger on how the PKP Intercity system works and how much a good logistics trip was here. It seems logical that if passengers book bicycle places a month earlier, railway employees have time to prepare a train according to the sold places. Why does it not agree? Is the problem in the online system in which the availability of bicycle places is incorrectly displayed or is the problem to attach the wrong wagons? Why is the crew starting the course not prepared in advance that this situation will occur to be able to react efficiently?

Many times on the same route I encountered the situation that I reserved a place in a wagon without intervals and received a compartment. The numbers of places did not quite agree, and when I asked why it was so, the lady checking the tickets explained that a bad wagon was substituted and nothing could do. The question is, are you sure? Are no complaints in similar cases to PKP? What if it was about places for people with disabilities or a family with a pram and children? I also wondered if there are often similar problems with PKP.

It happened not only to me

On one of the Facebook groups “Rowerempopolsce.pl” I found the post of Mr. Damian, who asked Internet users a few days ago what they think about current bicycle hooks at PKP Intercity. There were a lot of comments immediately under the entry. One showed that the compositions often lack bicycle cars. “Either they are or they are not there,” I read. In the photo in the comments you can see bicycles arranged on the seats – just like in my case.

“It was the conductor himself who arranged them there. There was to be a bicycle wagon on 12 hooks, and they substituted ordinary and with compartments. As the conductor said: the company calculated and allocated two compartments to bikes. Normally, if you put your legs in your shoes, you get a ticket, and here you could get a bicycle with dirty wheels. Of course, so many bikes could not fit in these two children’s ranges. Electricians found their honorable place in the toilet, fastened together so that no one would get off with them at night while you are sleeping in the compartment. ” “And how many nerves were there” – added.

Even when the bicycle cars are already hit, the hooks in them are also not assessed as well. “Someone who designed them had no idea about bicycles,” I read in the comments section.

No communication in the middle of communication

On long routes it is usually that the crew changes. It was so this time. At one point, the conductor who placed my bike in the compartment, got off and his substitutes appeared. I quickly understood that something did not work with communication in the team, for which I … got hit.

– And your bike was in these seats?! If you leave it again, you will clean them – I hear from the conductor, setting up to the exit just in front of the Rybnik station.

I had to explain myself again – not my fault – and for the conductor’s actions. After I explained that I did not set up a bicycle there, the lady softened, but she was surprised. She made it clear that it was “unresolved”, because later the seats remain dirty and someone would sit there.

It could end worse?

– Death with the procedures, you could already get a certificate from the conductor in Warsaw that you could get a train – not the fault of the crew – a bad wagon was attached and you should not go. You could advertise with PKP with a certificate – I heard from the lady mentioned during a short conversation.

She explained to me that such situations happen many times. – We do not want to do problems and we take passengers with bicycles, although we do not have the right places, but then we get over and it is also bad – added your conductor.

Does this mean that the next time there is a lack of a suitable wagon at PKP Intercity, I may not go?

I asked the spokesman for PKP Intercity about whether it really is so and why such problems occur. After publishing the text, we received the following answer:

“The Silesia train is compiled, among others, from wagons provided by České Dráhy, which declare the conduct of a given wagon in the train. The company remains in constant contact with the Czech carrier, emphasizing the need to correctly combine the warehouses. In the event of an emergency wagon, PKP Intercity makes every effort to ensure that – as much as possible Note that the inclusion of such a replacement wagon depends on both the availability of rolling stock adapted to the international routes and the technical capabilities of its inclusion on a specific station, “reads the PKP Intercity press office for” Wprost “.

It has been added that changes in the reservation system are applied and made available in the scheme at the time of submitting changes to the planned list of a given train. “Such situations relate to, among others, changes in the statement related to technical inspections of wagons or other planned causes. However, if a given wagon is converted as a result of a failure at the last minute, e.g. the day before departure, when almost all places are already sold out, no changes are introduced in the reservation system, and replacement places to passengers are indicated by the conductors on the train. available space – it sets such in the extreme vestibules of the wagons located at the beginning or end of the train composition.

It has not been explained whether, according to the procedure, the conductor has the right not to take us on board the train if the wagon is deprived of bicycle places.

To sum up, it would be perfect if every train promoted as “with bicycle places” actually had hooks or stands. However, when they are not there, and the carrier deliberately indicates ordinary ranges for transporting bicycles, the crew could know about it and warn about the getting on which the case concerns. Such a compartment in the wagon could be marked earlier, have a temporary information label attached, and the seats could be protected, e.g. with a protective film. These things do not seem complicated, but would avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.