Train Tickets Within Poland

We were visiting Poland in July 2018 and purchased all our tickets at our first stop which was Krakow.
We went Wroclaw-Gdansk-Warsaw. No problem. I do not think they charge more as tickets are sold, like in Italy, cause the tickets were very inexpensive. In fact we upgraded to 1st class cause the cost was very reasonable.

Poland's train system is wonderfully efficient and economical. We just purchased the tickets at the station either day of or a few days before. There is no point in purchasing ahead. Seniors (I believe defined by everyone over 60) get a substantial discount. We traveled during COVID and purchased 1st class seats for the additional space and more comfortable ride.

Have you sought the wisdom of the Man in Seat 61 regarding train travel?

If you read Man in Seat 61, he may recommend using PolRail to purchase all of your tickets. If so, I can vouch that their service was very reliable when I used them 6 years ago. Their communications were timely and they delivered my tickets to my Krakow hotel.

I haven't checked to see if he still recommends them.

Purchasing tickets way in advance isn't necessary, as fares [assuming you're starting with USD] are reasonable to cheap. A week in advance if your sked is firm, or if you want to be sure of specific seats, otherwise even day before or walk-up.

If the struggle is with www.intercity.pl, you should try www.koleo.pl/en/ or www.polishtrains.eu, which are both more user friendly. You are looking at trips equivalent to Rome => Florence in terms of how easy the travel is. First Class includes an excellent snack or light lunch.

Gdansk=>Torun can be a regional/commuter run. Take some time to learn the layout of the station in Krakow, as it's in the middle of a shopping mall. The RS guidebook has excellent instructions for getting to public transportation; also check out YouTube videos.

We liked the convenience and flexibility of just purchasing at the station. By not purchasing ahead, your itinerary can be flexible.

I used the Koleo app this past May. Very easy.

Thanks everyone. I don’t see any need to purchase tickets before we arrive in Krakow if the price is the same. I tried both the MAV app and the Polish site to buy tickets from Budapest-Krakow and couldn’t make them work. I ended up buying the ticket on the Trainline app. We can buy our other tickets in Krakow. It looks like it’s possible to use the DB app for tickets in Poland as well, but I don’t see a need for that, at least until we get tickets for the train to take us to Hannover from Toruń.

And yes, I had checked The Man in Seat 61, but the suggestions didn’t work.

Andrea, I typically started the transaction on the app, then I'd show the person at the ticket counter. I'm a real loser at learning languages, but I did just fine with the people at the counters. I would write the city names in capital, block letters with an arrow showing which direction I wanted to go. Then, I just needed to remember that its in military time, and I can't recall, but the date format might have been DDMMYYYY, instead of the way we do it in the U.S. I feel much more comfortable working with a person. They were always very nice. One time I chose a return time of about 2pm, and the counter person shook her head and told me the city I was going to on our day trip was beautiful and I would want more time. She was right.

I feel less confident about the Seat 61 person than I used to. Just a few things that I've noticed, nothing major.

@jules m, great idea to start it on the app and show them. At the very least I will write it down. I’m used to using the 24 hour clock and dd/mm/yyyy for dates. Did you find that some people at train stations could speak a little English?

I just waited 30 minutes in a very slow moving ticket line at the Gdansk station. One clerk went on break and slow got slower as the line behind me got longer and people were trying to sweet talk their way into the front of the line. (No comment on how that didn't work out for them.)

Both clerks in this tourist town spoke good English. Their setup allowed for CC tap and for Google Pay.

I couldn't get the ticketing website to work, though the app may have been sturdier.

Allow plenty of time.

@CWSocial, that’s good to know. Thanks! I hope you’re enjoying your trip. I hope we have a chance to chat before we leave next month.

I think I forgot to mention that I did send a message to Polrail yesterday and I received an email from them overnight. They said they can handle the bookings, but it’s too early to do so. They can only be booked up to 45 days in advance. They will send a reminder at the end of August when the booking opens for the first ticket I need. The tickets can be purchased online and would then be sent to me. Unfortunately that won’t work if they would physically mail the tickets. We leave on September 17 and I would be worried they wouldn’t arrive on time, plus we will need more tickets as we travel through Poland over a 2 week period.

PolRail bought my tickets and held them until they delivered them to my hotel in Krakow.

I was in Poland in April/May and used the Koleo app to purchase our long distance tickets. The only times I used ticket machines were for local/regional transit, such as from Gdansk to Sopot or Malbork. All purchases went smoothly after I discovered which credit card worked with the Polish/European authentication system :). For the long distance trains, consider first class seats as the price is just a few dollars more. If you take high-speed trains from Krakow-Warsaw or Warsaw-Gdansk there is some price advantage to advance purchases.

@CWsocial, we are staying in an apartment, so that’s probably not an option.

I will try some of these other ideas, thanks.

Don't stress about the tickets, they won't be an issue. Buy the first set at the station from a kiosk or a person at the counter. If you encounter a cumbersome line, which was never our experience, then you could use one of the apps the folks are talking about.

From there, decide what you want to do going forward.

We've traveled by train throughout Europe and never had much of an issue with tickets. That said, Poland, was the easiest country to buy tickets and use the train.

Thanks jules m. I’m thinking that may be the easiest way to do it.

Hey,
I just have found this forum thanks to morning brew :D

As I am native Polish I would:
1/ Buy tickets via the sky cash app: https://apps.apple.com/pl/app/skycash/id320226186 (also is very useful for local buses)
Pros: ticket in the app, no need to print

2/ for my mother I would buy using https://www.intercity.pl/pl/ - they recommend to print, but phone version is enough :D

3/ for my grandmother I would go to ticket counter

Things to remember:
on long distance trains you need a id to verify the name on the ticket

Buying tickets in advance is worth it!
30-24 days of advance - 30% off
23-16 days - 20% off
15-8 days - 10% off

Each ticket can be returned before the train departs from your station (depends of the reason there could be some fees)

Trains are usually late, best to check the status is via: https://portalpasazera.pl/en

Also in the local trains you can buy tickets from the train staff, only the long distance needs a ticket bought in advance

Just an update to say that when we arrived in Krakow we went to the train station to buy trains for our future journeys. The only one we didn’t get was from Toruń - Hannover. We were told we could only book as far as Berlin. I ended up booking it on the DB app. We loved our time in Krakow and arrived in Warsaw yesterday. We are looking foto exploring here.