It's a one kilometre, 12 minute walk from home to W-wa Jeziorki station. (A pavement along ul. Karczunkowska would be helpful, though. Two months ago, I was forced off the roadway by a truck while walking to the station in the dark; I slipped, ripping the knee of the trousers of my best suit)
The journey to W-wa Powiśle (nearest station to my office) took 39 minutes. Ten minutes of that was waiting to clear the points outside W-wa Zachodnia, where trains from the south, south-west, west and north-west all converge on the city. Still, what's that to traffic jams?
And the lovely walk at the other end, through the Rydz-Śmigły park (above) to the office, takes another 15 minutes. Around an hour. No stress, no worries, environmentally friendly. As long as the train is on time.
Above: a view of the Palace of Culture from the platform of W-wa Zachodnia, where I had to change trains this evening (to do with the double decker trains that don't fit the tunnel).Commuting by train (when I don't have any morning meetings at Platan Park to make) seems easy. But PKP being PKP, there are issues.
One concerns ticket validation. On Warsaw buses, trams and Metro, the ZTM network, you need to validate your ticket. Easy - there are plenty of kasowniki - ticket validating machines - to hand. Simply insert your ticket, and out it comes, validated.
Now, Warsaw suburban lines, run by PKP subsidiary, Koleje Mazowieckie (KM), accept ZTM period tickets (one day or longer). But KM does not provide any ticket validating machines on its trains or stations. Any ZTM ticket needs to be pre-validated elsewhere before it is valid on KM trains (getting this so far?). So this evening, there I was, with an unvalidated ticket in my hand, forced to get onto a bus for one stop, just to use its ticket validating machine to validate a ticket so I could use it on a KM train home! Does that many any sense, readers?
This time last year:
Rampa swansong - we shall not see its likes again
It was warmer then than it is this year
Michael - the underlying point you make is cogent throughout Poland. It is a failure to 'connect the dots'. This systemic problem mushrooms up and out and has the effect of rendering even the simplest of processes effete. Multiply it by the number of everyday processes and you enter a conundrum of dizzying dead ends and personal rumination of 'who could have missed this?' 'What could they have been thinking when ...?' etc.
ReplyDeleteConsider another comical example. Take the Metro system. (which albeit minuscule, is excellent). When standing on that platform and glancing at the digital clock at the end of the platform - rather than telling you within how many minutes to expect the next train, it tells you how many minutes have passed since the last train pulled out - go figure that one out!
Remember the dots
I have done business here for 20 years and 'management by the dots' is the way I have to manage business processes and what I use to train people - it is very effective!
There was an article in today's Gazeta Wyborcza about a traveller from distant Michalin who boarded a KM train without having been able to pre-validate her ticket, understandable as there are few ZTM buses out that way. KM says it will install more kasowniki, but that they get vandalised on unmanned stations. Maybe install them at point-of-sale? (kiosks, stores etc.) Or is that too radical?
ReplyDeleteAh... The Metro clocks. Those are for drivers to let them know how far ahead the previous train is, not for the passengers.
ReplyDeleteAt least a single ticket is valid on a number of types of transport and operators in Warsw. Sheer bliss compared to the UK.
ReplyDeleteIn Edinburgh, only rail tickets are valid on trains, and the two competing bus companies do not accept the other's tickets. No ¨integrated ticketing.¨
In Glasgow, separate tickets for the Subway as well.
Added to that the rediculous British system of buying your ticket from the bus driver as you enter. I think only London has made the giant leap of selling them from machines at the bus stop. This, combined with only one door on the bus, means that buses stop for ages as old ladies search for their bus passes and every second person asks how much the fare is.
Why can't the British follow the European model and buy tickets from corner shops or automatic machines and then validate them on the bus, combined with on-the-spot insepctions.
A few years back there was an inter urban metre gauge railway running along Pulaska. Now if only it had been electrified rather than cut up for scrap!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.holdys.pl/tomi/index.php?gal=tomasz_wach