Please sign in to post.

Poland won’t let you cut it close for train tix

Posted by (Colorado Mountains, USA) on

Short version: We hadn’t already bought train tickets, because I doubted we’d reach the Malbork, Poland station in time for the next train, but then got to it 5 minutes before the next train to Gdańsk was scheduled to depart. Train hadn’t arrived yet, but the official train PKP app wouldn’t sell me a ticket.

So I got in line for the ticket window, to buy tickets there. At the window with 3 minutes to go, the woman there said (with awful feedback coming through her microphone speaker), “Two minutes, no.” She refused to (or couldn’t?) sell us tickets.

The platform was less than a two minute walk from the window, but I don’t know if she doubted we could reach it in time, or if the computer just wouldn’t allow her to ring them up.

Ironically, the train was 3 minutes late, so I got to watch it arrive after 5 more minutes, sit for two minutes while people got off and others boarded, and then depart, 12 minutes after we’d reached the place.

Posted by
5267 posts

Cyn, I am sorry about having to wait for the next train. But your story really made me smile because of the memory it brought: same station, same journey, opposite dilemma in 2022. I could so clearly picture you at the ticket window. Here’s what I wrote then.

“Coming back from Malbork, I walked into the station to find my IC train was delayed by an hour. I saw there was a regional train 4 minutes after my scheduled IC, so I went to the window and showed her my ticket on my phone. She pointed to the regional train, I said yes, and she promptly filled out a piece of paper, stamped it, and off I went (again, very little actual language involved but it was efficient and pleasant and easy). I boarded the train and very soon the conductor came through to scan tickets. I showed her the piece of paper, watched her face register incomprehension, showed her my original ticket on my phone, she looked at the paper again, then dropped it on the seat beside me and moved on - in utter disgust. (insert laughing emoji) I did not have the sense it was really disgust with me - more likely at the system or whatever had been done to put me on the train. Who knows. :) But I had a seat in an unoccupied train and got back to Gdansk about the time my delayed train would have left Malbork. :)”

Posted by
2827 posts

(In Poland, you can buy train tickets directly from the conductor on board the train for an extra ticket fee.
The only trains where this is not possible are the high-speed Intercity trains which make you present the ticket prior to boarding).

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.