Public transport cheaper for Varsovians

The proposition is a controversial one - if you live and pay your taxes within the boundaries of the Capital City of Warsaw, you will be able to benefit from cheaper public transport from the New Year. The price of a quarterly city card (Karta Miejska) goes up on 1 January to 280 złotys from the current 250zł. If you are a Warsaw taxpayer, it stays the same. So 30zł x 4 = 120zł saving in a year = worth doing. If on the other hand, you live just the other side of the city's borders (in Nowa Iwiczna across the fields from Jeziorki, for instance), you will pay full whack. Even if you work in Warsaw, or own a business in Warsaw employing people who live in Warsaw.

Is this fair? Yes - to a point. However, I believe that long-term, Warsaw, along with its nine neighbouring poviats (districts), needs to be broken out of Mazowsze to form a voivodship (province) of its own. This would immediately plunge the rest of Mazowsze into statistical poverty and entitle Radom, Ciechanów, Siedle, Ostołęka and other poor towns of the region to EU schemes to help raise their developmental status. Because these towns are in the same EU region as wealthy Warsaw, Mazowsze's GDP per capita is above the EU average, so no special support for them...

But back to the card. If you contribute financially to the city's upkeep by paying taxes here, you will have additional benefits in the form of travel prices frozen at this year's levels.

Getting this sorted is easy. You go onto ZTM's excellent website, find the relevant page (even in English), fill in the details, and ticking the box in which you give permission to ZTM to approach the tax authorities to check that you are indeed a Warsaw resident and taxpayer. When this has been done, you receive an e-mail or SMS that your hologram is ready. You then go to the ZTM office most conveniently located to you to collect the hologram, which is then applied to your city card. Once you have the hologram, you are entitled to cheaper public transport.

...

Warsaw's public transport authority, ZTM, has a new full-time boss in place, it was announced last week. He is Wiesław Witek and he replaces Leszek Ruta, a man I believe to have been unfairly relieved of his duties as a political sop to the voters in the run-up to October's referendum to oust the mayor, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. [An appreciation of Leszek Ruta's work at ZTM here.] Speaking to Mr Ruta back in 2011, he assured me that ul. Puławska would have a bus lane running up and down its full length once the junction with the S2 Southern Warsaw Bypass was opened. Well, he's gone so I can't hold him to his promise. But will Mr Witek return to the idea of a bus lane for Puławska? I must say, that since the S2's junction with Al. Jerozolimskie was opened, traffic has loosened along this crucial artery leading into the city centre from the south of Warsaw.

This time last year:
Swans on ice

This time two years ago:
Cars

This time three years year:
What's the English for kombinować?

This time four years ago:
The demographics of jazz

This time five years ago:
A day in Poznań