The aim of this innovative solution is simple: to make travelling easier. And the easier rail travel becomes, the more people will use it. This is a shared goal that has guided both Koleje Dolnośląskie and KOLEO, Poland’s most popular railway ticket sales platform, for years.
– I am pleased that this solution will be introduced on Koleje Dolnośląskie trains, because our cooperation with KOLEO has worked very well over the years. In the past, every pupil or student had to show their physical student ID, and the conductor had to determine from a small silver sticker whether it was still valid. mObywatel shortens this process, and now, thanks to KOLEO, we can be sure that a given passenger is entitled to the appropriate discount – says Damian Stawikowski, President of Koleje Dolnośląskie.
Every student will be able to verify their eligibility independently in the KOLEO app. Instead of showing their student ID to the conductor on the train, they will be able to easily link their KOLEO ticket to the government’s mObywatel app.
Minimum formalities while travelling
The solution will benefit not only passengers but also Koleje Dolnośląskie employees. Conductor teams currently carry out more than 2 million ticket inspections each month. With online sales accounting for over 60 percent, this means more than 1.2 million identity-document checks every month. This is particularly time-consuming during the academic year, when approximately 180,000 discounted tickets must additionally be checked over the course of several months.
– To use the new feature, you only need to confirm your identity via the mObywatel service in the KOLEO app. Students can additionally verify their eligibility for a discount. Once the process is complete, subsequent railway ticket purchases are much faster and more convenient – says Kuba Czajkowski, President of Astarium, the Polish technology company that owns the KOLEO platform.
The principle is very simple – after completing the authentication process when purchasing a ticket, the passenger receives a verified ticket. This means that during an inspection there is no longer any need to show an identity document or student ID, or to log in to the mObywatel app again. Everything is encoded in the ticket purchased in the KOLEO app, which also works offline—particularly important in the mountainous areas of Lower Silesia, where mobile internet coverage may be limited.
KOLEO is the largest railway ticket seller in Poland. Every day, hundreds of thousands of people use KOLEO’s mobile apps for Android and iOS, as well as the koleo.pl website, to plan their rail journeys and purchase tickets. Data from the Office of Rail Transport for 2025 demonstrates how popular online railway ticket purchases are: 47.6 percent of passengers used apps, websites and similar channels, 1.1 percentage points more than the previous year.
mObywatel has become one of the most important digital tools in Poland. One of the app’s key functions is secure identity confirmation, which facilitates, among other things, handling official matters without the need to carry or have paper documents checked. More than 12 million users already use the app, and over 1.5 million Poles log in every day. These figures clearly show how widespread the digitization of services and documents has become. Now passengers of Koleje Dolnośląskie can also benefit from similar capabilities when purchasing tickets in the KOLEO app.