The topic of free public transport beyond Bolesławiec’s borders returned during the August session of the Bolesławiec City Council. President Piotr Roman informed councillors about a visit by representatives of Bolesławiec City Hall to Radomsko, where they examined, among other things, solutions concerning the organisation of public transport.

Let us recall: in April this year, the mayor of the City of Ceramics presented councillors with a concept for closer cooperation and, in the longer term, also merging the urban and rural municipalities of Bolesławiec. One argument in favour of such consolidation was the possibility of extending free public transport to localities currently outside the city limits.

According to information previously presented by City Hall, restoring free public transport throughout the prospective urban-rural municipality in spe would mean covering, among others, Kruszyn, Łaziska, Otok, Bożejowice, Dobra, Brzeźnik, Łąka and Bolesławice. The estimated cost at that time of extending free travel to nearby localities was approximately PLN 3.5 million annually.

The president has now returned to the example of Radomsko. – The President of Radomsko is my local-government friend, or perhaps a local-government colleague. He informed me that public transport there operates free of charge in both the urban and rural municipalities – P. Roman said during the session.

What is crucial for the head of Bolesławiec City Hall, however, is not the mere fact that free public transport operates, but how it was extended. The basis for settlements there is “a specified price per vehicle-kilometre”.

The president also added that at this stage he no longer intends to convince the rural municipality’s authorities of a specific solution: – I achieved exactly what I wanted. I started the discussion, showed the possibilities, and at this stage I am ending my efforts to convince anyone to extend urban transport, free public transport, to the rural municipality.

This does not mean, however, that the matter has been closed. The president declared that if a formal request is submitted by the municipality in question, Bolesławiec City will be able to discuss implementing a model similar to the one operating in Radomsko.

We will return to this topic.