Zmierzch czy koniec przedsiębiorstw Państwowej Komunikacji Samochodowej?

• Published in: Prace Komisji Geografii Komunikacji PTG 2023-03, Vol.26 (1), p.69-87
• Main Author: Ciechański, Ariel
• Format: Article
• Language: Polish
• Subjects: Health and medicine and law; Rural and urban sociology
• ISSN: 1426-5915; 2543-859X
• DOI: 10.4467/2543859XPKG.23.005.17402

The issue of processes concerning Polish state Motor Transport Company PKS enterprises has been of interest to the author of the article for many years, and he focused in particular on the ownership transformation that affected them. The commercialization, privatization and communalization of these entities has actually come to an end. In recent years, however, another phenomenon related to them has intensified – the growing number of companies that have terminated the service of scheduled passenger transport. To a large extent, this applied to those in which foreign investors participated in the privatization. This was particularly visible in 2016-2019, when a total of as many as 37 PKS’s resigned from servicing scheduled services. This aroused legitimate concern not only from the society, but also from the decision-makers governing the country. Limiting the offer of non-urban public public transport, including primarily PKS companies, has led to a discussion on the growing problem of transport based social exclusion. An attempt to respond to this phenomenon was the establishment of the Bus Transport Development Fund in 2019, the funds of which were intended to stop the collapse of, above all, the former state-owned PKS enterprises, but also other carriers. Unfortunately, the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus has left its mark, especially on suburban bus lines, periodically cutting off entire districts from public transport services. At the same time, it had a strong impact on the financial condition of bus carriers. Even the increase in funding for transport, unfortunately, did not end the complete withdrawal of subsequent PKS companies from serving scheduled routes – from the beginning of 2020 to the end of August 2022, eight more entities left the market, and the next ones intended to do so in the same year. Unfortunately, the recent increase in fossil fuel prices and staff shortages may contribute to the deepening of the described processes.