photo: PKP Intercity/PKP Intercity Wraps 2022 with Intensive Travels
The concluded Christmas and New Year period brought great popularity to railways, with more than 2 million people choosing to travel by PKP Intercity trains during this time. The whole of 2022 brought record interest in rail travel, to which new ticket offers and the development of sales channels contributed significantly. The hit of 2022 proved to be the Cheap with Relatives offer, which was used by more than 4.1 million passengers.
During Christmas and New Year, travel on PKP Intercity trains was very popular. From 22 December 2022 to 3 January 2023, more than 2 million people travelled on the carrier's trains. The highest turnout was recorded on Christmas Eve – nearly 198,000 passengers used PKP Intercity services on 23 December. The most popular journeys were between Warsaw and the Tricity, Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw, Lublin and Lodz.
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The end of December was the culmination of a record-breaking 2022 as a whole. The approximately 58.9 million passengers who took PKP Intercity trains is 10 million more than in the best year so far, in 2019, an increase of 20 per cent. Comparing 2022 to 2021, the number of passengers increased by more than 23 million (an increase of around 65%).
"It is no exaggeration to say that we are witnessing a fashion for rail. In the past year, we have developed our ticket offers as well as set our sights on expanding the possibility of buying tickets for our trains through new sales channels by starting to cooperate with popular platforms. All of this is to ensure that the fashion for rail travel becomes a matter of course and a natural choice for more travellers. And these, as the excellent results recorded in 2022 show, are steadily increasing," says Tomasz Gontarz, board member of PKP Intercity.
The visible effect of the Promo offer
The extension of the Promo offer to all train categories at the beginning of May 2022 has resulted in a significant increase in interest in PKP Intercity's services. Thanks to an offer based on a dynamic price management system, it has become possible to travel at lower prices than before. Since May, TLK and IC economy category trains have gained two additional promotional thresholds. With the unification of the offer, tickets for connections of all categories are now divided according to five promotion levels: Super Promo, Promo Plus, Promo 45 (tickets 45% cheaper than the base price), Promo 30 (30% cheaper) and Promo 15 (15% cheaper). The availability of individual promotional tickets depends on the popularity of the train in question. Thus, within the public Promo offer, it is sometimes enough to choose a train with a slightly less popular hour to buy a much cheaper ticket.
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The functioning of the Promo offer, with systematic investment in modern rolling stock, has contributed to greater interest in travel on weekdays and an increase in average train attendance. The effects of the introduced offer were already visible in May, which belonged to the first month this year with record-breaking transport results when more than 5.26 million people travelled with PKP Intercity. In June, the number of passengers increased even further (almost 5.5 million).
Sales hit – Cheap with Relatives offer
At a time of rising inflation and increasing fuel prices, PKP Intercity met the needs of millions of Poles wishing to travel across the country and, at the beginning of July, introduced a new offer, Taniej z Bliskimi, which made travelling by train in a few people very cost-competitive compared to travelling by car.
The offer, aimed at families and small groups, is available in the IC and TLK categories – thanks to it, even two people travelling together can purchase tickets 30% cheaper. Passengers entitled to statutory discounts can also take advantage of the promotion by combining the offer with a discount.
Taniej z Bliskimi has been met with great interest from travellers. Its first six months of operation, from July to the end of December 2022, yielded 1.7 million tickets sold. Thanks to them, more than 4.1 million travellers enjoyed cheaper travel.
The new offer contributed to the continuation of the upward trend in train attendance: nearly 6.5 million passengers travelled on the carrier's trains in July. In August, even more people used the carrier's services, more than 6.5 million. Thus, August 2022 became the month with the highest attendance in the history of PKP Intercity.
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Autumn, on the other hand, was the time of a huge promotion encouraging rail travel in Poland. PKP Intercity made a pool of 1.2 million tickets available at promotional prices as part of the Promo offer.
Increasingly easier to buy tickets
The growing popularity of train travel is also influenced by the increasing ease of purchasing tickets for train connections. At the end of May and the beginning of June, PKP Intercity tickets appeared in the mPay application and e-podróżnik.pl, and at the end of October, another partner joined this group, KOLEO, which offers the possibility of purchasing tickets in the application and on the website.
It is the result of cooperation undertaken under a new agency sales model. PKP Intercity's offer, available on external platforms, is part of the Company's strategy, which aims to simplify and improve the passenger service process through the introduction of digital solutions.
The ticket purchasing options are now even more intuitive, faster and simpler, thus meeting travellers' requirements. The new solution has been welcomed by them. At the end of December, the barrier of the first million tickets sold by partners under PKP Intercity's Unified Terms and Conditions was exceeded.
A new ticketing system is coming soon
Scheduled for the last months of 2023, travellers will be able to buy train tickets in a completely new online sales system. It is because PKP Intercity closed 2022 with the signing of three contracts with PKP Informatika in this regard. Travellers will be able to use the full functionality of the new system in the last quarter of 2024.
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The new e-IC 2.0 system will offer travellers a new graphic design and purchase path. There will be new features such as a connection search to plan a 'back and forth' journey, the creation of shopping profiles (where favourite or most frequent relations can be indicated) or the option to add a ticket to the calendar. e-IC 2.0 will suggest and select the best offer for travellers to use if they meet the fare conditions of the offer. Once the traveller's age has been determined, the platform will suggest the concessions most likely to be available for that age range. It is particularly important when ordering international tickets for journeys with children due to the complex rules for child and youth discounts.
Quiet Zones on more trains
The Zones of Silence, familiar from Pendolino trains, have appeared on further electric multiple units as part of a pilot scheme. From 4 September 2022, they can be used by passengers on the popular PesaDARTs and Flirts, which run in the InterCity category. The Quiet Zone is a dedicated area on the train for travellers who need quiet and respect and those who want to travel in peace. Amongst other things, talking on the phone, listening to music loudly, or the use of bells and beeps on electronic devices are unwelcome here. Importantly, the service is free of charge – the ticket price for travel in the Quiet Zone is the same as the price of a 2nd class ticket.
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Source: PKP Intercity Press Releases