Our Reader asked us to publicize the issue. In an email to the editorial office, she wrote:

I am a resident of the village of Dobra and feel wronged by the changes introduced by MZK to the timetable. Specifically, on weekdays the last bus is at 6:57 p.m. (from Dobra to the city, meaning from the city to Dobra it is about 20 minutes earlier).

Previously, there were buses after 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. I know many people—children, young people and adults—who returned home at those times, whether from work or extracurricular activities. Not everyone has a car, so eliminating buses at those times seems rather ill-considered.

The second issue is the frequency of buses at the weekend—then a bus arrives every two hours, and the last ones run after 5:00 p.m. I think this is probably some kind of misunderstanding, since the most people travel to the city on Saturdays and Sundays. It is the weekend; everyone wants to relax, go to the city for a walk, to the cinema or shopping. And as I wrote earlier—not everyone has a car.

I do not know what guided the MZK management when preparing the new timetable, but I believe they did not take the interests of public transport users into account—especially those living in the countryside (I think the residents of Kruszyn, Łaziska and other places are not happy with the situation either).

“There is no ill will on our part,” emphasizes Andrzej Jagiera, president of the Municipal Transport Company. “For now, we do not anticipate increasing the number of services either to Dobra or to other villages in Gmina Wiejska Bolesławiec [MZK jest spółką Gminy Miejskiej – przyp „ii”]. We conducted profitability studies of individual routes. We are discontinuing those with the lowest demand. In any case, the timetable change proposals did not come directly from us, but from the company we commissioned to carry out the aforementioned studies. We live in a time of competition; we must adapt to these realities, and Gmina Miejska cannot subsidize public transport in Gmina Wiejska.”

As the president points out, MZK representatives discussed subsidies with the authorities of Gmina Wiejska. “The municipality takes the position that if it subsidized our services, it would also have to subsidize the services of other carriers,” says Jagiera. He adds: “Residents of the villages near Bolesławiec cannot blame MZK simply because we are discontinuing unprofitable connections. Private carriers do the same; after all, they practically do not operate on Sundays.”

Andrzej Jagiera explains that this situation is also influenced by the fact that more and more people own cars and fewer passengers take buses to work the second shift. “In my opinion, residents of Dobra and other villages should approach the authorities of Gmina Wiejska Bolesławiec, which could, for example, conclude an intermunicipal agreement with Gmina Miejska. An agreement of this kind was already in operation more than a dozen years ago,” says the president.

We will return to the matter.

(information: ii)