A county resident contacted our editorial office after noticing a significant difference in the prices of monthly tickets sold by PKS Bolesławiec on two routes of similar length.
“The Żeliszów–Bolesławiec route is about 13 kilometres long,” the reader wrote. “There is no private carrier on this route, and a monthly ticket costs more than PLN 380. The situation is different on the Raciborowice–Bolesławiec route. It is longer, at about 17 kilometres, but a private carrier operates there. The ticket price at PKS? Just PLN 185,” the resident reports, making direct accusations against the county carrier.
“The County Council’s recent decision to provide free tickets for students sparked a major discussion, but no one looked at how PKS treats other residents in places where it has managed to eliminate private competition,” the resident writes. “This is open and blatant exploitation of passengers in places where the company has a monopoly. Why is the county building a monopoly that hits ordinary people so drastically in their pockets? Do the Starosta of Bolesławiec and the PKS Management Board believe that residents of some villages are worse and that money can be taken from them with impunity to patch the company’s budget shortfall? Please publicise this matter and ask the county authorities these questions. Residents are tired of being hostages of a monopolist,” the reader added.
We asked the company why residents of Żeliszów pay more than twice as much for a monthly bus ticket to Bolesławiec as residents of Raciborowice, even though the latter travel a longer route. We also asked how the company calculates prices for these specific routes and whether the lack of competition on the route to Żeliszów affects prices.
Unfortunately, the response we received explained nothing.
“The ticket prices applied by the bus carrier are set on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of economic and organisational factors related to the provision of public collective transport,” the company replied. “The fare level is influenced in particular by the length of the routes served, the frequency of services, the costs of providing transport, including fuel costs, employee salaries, fleet maintenance and operation costs, as well as passenger volumes and other costs of conducting transport operations,” it added.
Does this evasive response from the county carrier confirm the resident’s suspicions? Even if everything is correct in the documents, the huge disparity in monthly ticket prices is unfair to some county residents. Such inequalities are presumably not consistent with the role PKS Bolesławiec is meant to play for the county.