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Poland trains - booking and classes

Hello,

We are planning to visit Poland from the US in April 2024 and are looking for some advice about booking and taking intercity trains in Poland.

I was planning to use the Koleo app. Seems very user friendly. Can anyone confirm that once purchasing a ticket on Koleo is the e-ticket emailed to the email address on file and also available on the app? And is this typically fine to show (printed out or on phone) as proof of having purchased a ticket?

I also see that the app asks for passport or other ID info as optional when booking. Any issues with leaving that blank? Of course we'd have our passport available to show as ID long with the ticket when we are on the train.

The other question is regarding the differences between 1st and 2nd class. Most of our trains will be the IC type. From what I can see from the carriage seating arrangement, it looks like 1st class has 3 seats in a row (ie a middle seat) and 2nd class has 2 sets of 2 seats with an aisle between. Is that correct? We are traveling as 2 people, so although I’d like the comfort of 1st class, the seating arrangement might be more desirable with 2nd class. Any thoughts?

On the EIP high-speed train I see the difference is the 1st class has a 1-2 seating arrangement and the 2nd class is 2-2, so that makes sense.

Thanks for the help!

Posted by
1171 posts

Most of our trains will be the IC type. From what I can see from the carriage seating arrangement, it looks like 1st class has 3 seats in a row (ie a middle seat) and 2nd class has 2 sets of 2 seats with an aisle between.

Take the time to look at a few more carriages on several trains - where you see the three plus three, those seats are in separate compartments, and you will find them in both 1st and 2nd class. You may also find the 2 plus 2 in 2nd class in "open" layout cars - in first class those may be 1 plus 2. It varies by carriage by train, and typically Polish trains have only a few, if not just one, first class carriage.

I've noticed that there are a number of third parties selling train tickets in Poland - www.polishtrains.eu is another one. I agree they are easier to navigate than the "official" website www.intercity.pl. I have no experience [yet] buying tickets, but I intend to purchase on intericty.pl for my trip in April. And one would think that if you have a ticket in the app, there isn't a need to print a hard copy.

My experience in Italy was that it was advantageous to create an account on the Trenitalia website, which extended to the phone app - made keeping track of tickets quite easy.

Posted by
522 posts

I used the Koleo app in December, on advice from others who post on this Forum. It worked great! The ticket appeared on the app and via email. I can't speak to entering passport info, as I don't recall if I did that. We took only one trip, 2nd class, so I can't help
out there.

Posted by
27 posts

Thanks all for the additional information!

Unfortunately plans have changed and we will need to postpone the trip, but we hope to go in Sept/Oct of this year. The info provided here will be helpful and thanks Mardee for the tip about tomorrow's zoom meeting. I'll definitely try and jump on.

Best,
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