Short-distance flying

Wrocław is not just my most beloved city in Poland, but also my most frequent destination in business travels. I last ventured there on Monday, 7 October, to a participate in a workshop and I for the first time I travelled there by plane (which was the second domestic flight in my life). The workshop date had been set in August, so I could buy tickets within a limit of airplane travel expenses (a return flight set my employer back around 300 PLN).

The workshop began at 9:30 a.m., while at that time the first Pendolino train arrived at 10:03 at Wrocław Główny station, which in fact meant I would have turned up nearly an hour late (not a desirable option). I could have gone there on Sunday evening, but I had not wished to give up on my private plans to take a business trip on a weekend day. A journey by car is the fastest (door to door) option, yet I was supposed to travel on my own (mileage allowance not being allocated per more passengers) and after taking several (on average one per fortnight) long-distance trips around Poland, I thought I would not get myself tired behind the wheel.

My lame excuse for plane being more environment-friendly than car was that the plane would fly to Wrocław anyway, while my car was sitting in the garage, not emitting carbon dioxide. This assertion is as wrong as the one that one vote does not count in an election. Each individual shapes demand for short-distance flights. If masses of individuals do not choose such connections and opt for trains, airlines would be forced to reduce number of such flights, as with low seat occupancy they would be loss-making.

The morning journey went smoothly. I left home just before 6:00 a.m. (the time when Pendolino to Wrocław which would carry me too late was pulling off from W-wa Centralna), took 504 bus, changed to 148 bus and arrived at the airport at 6:30 a.m.. Touched down in (frosty) Wrocław just before 8:30 a.m., caught the 106 bus to town, arrived to my destination some 10 minutes before the workshop commenced.

The way home got more complicated. The plane which was to take me home broke down on its way from Warsaw, had to return to Warsaw, be fixed and then took off again. As a result, the plane bound to land in Warsaw at 7:20 p.m. touched down an hour and a half later. I returned home an hour later than I would have come back by Pendolino (and had to change means of transport three times: 175 bus, then 189 bus, then M1 underground, then 179 bus).

The delayed return flight has made me realise one-day travellers who were about to end their journey in Warsaw were just a tiny minority (less than 20%) of passengers. Most people flying from Wrocław to Warsaw were about to miss their another flight. As an airline representative told me, it is quite common PLL LOT sells tickets from Wrocław to a city in Europe or outside our continent and as a package offers a connecting flight to Warsaw and then a direct flight to a final destination. Hence the delay of 90 minutes ruined itinenaries of some of passengers.

The problems with trips to Wrocław are the lack of relatively fast train there and lack of connections arriving to Wrocław around the beginning of a business day (i.e. between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.). Look at what PKP Intercity offers to passengers willing to travel for one day to a major city from Warsaw (timetable from 20 October 2019 to 14 December 2019).

Service to Wrocław: 6:00 – 9:54 (nearly four hours, late arrival)

Services to Kraków: 5:55 – 8:22 or 7:00 – 9:17 (less than two hours thirty minutes and reasonably early arrival)

Service to Poznań: 5:36 – 8:26 (less than three hours and early arrival), but then no reasonable service until 9:30 – 12:25)

Services to Katowice: 5:25 – 8:11 or 6:45 – 9:13 (the second service within less than two hours thirty minutes, reasonably early arrival)

Service to Gdańsk: 6:25 – 9:16 (less than three hours, reasonable arrival).

Am I the only one who sees morning connection to Wrocław is the worst of the five above?

Train connections to Tricity, Silesia, Kraków or now Poznań can boast of station-to-station journey duration comparable or faster than door-to-door journey by car. Because there is no straight-line railway to Wrocław, the fastest door-to-door journey by train takes around five and a half hours. Compare this to door-to-door journey to my company’s head office in Wrocław which by car takes three and a half hours if you drive at reasonable speed (around speed limits or a little (no more than 10 kmph) faster) and add lack of reasonable and fast connections (PKP Intercity, do catch up!) and you will find out why only those who do not have driving licences, are afraid of long journeys behind the wheel or refuse to use their private vehicles for business purposes even in exchange for mileage allowance, travel between Warsaw and Wrocław by train (unless they can book a flight in advance).

I have promised myself not to take any airborne trip to Wrocław, yet for abovementioned reasons, I cannot pledge to take the train. The argument that despite longer journey I could work in a train is flawed, since quality of Internet connection (muffled LTE coverage) since on most incidences leaves a lot to be desired (though I have record of positive surprises in this respect). I hope one day Wrocław will have as good train connection to Warsaw as Gdańsk (same distance, journey shorter by an hour), however this would probably necessitate construction of new tracks (maybe between Łódź and Wrocław).

Post-election musings

Oddly enough, the final results fell nearly accurately into line with exit polls (no deviations observed for the two biggest groupings).

PiS politicians, despite having won the election, have few reasons to be complacent.

They had poured billions of zlotys into Poles’ pockets – the nation has refused to be bought off with their own money to the extent they had expected…

They had harnessed the horrid propaganda machinery (TVPiS) against the opposition…

Campaigns run by the opposition had been mediocre, unlike theirs.

And despite all those tailwinds they have received the same number of seats in the lower house of the parliament and lost control over the upper house – hats down to the opposition for the Senate treaty without which this would not have been possible.

Admittedly, the very outcome is owed to lunatic-right Konfederacja, which having scored more than 1.2 million votes, is no longer is a marginal grouping. If we add up votes gotten by KO, Lewica and PSL and compare them to votes cast for PiS and Konfederacja together, the latter total is some 300,000 higher. These numbers do not bode well.

The election was a referendum – whether you embrace of reject the way PiS wants to run Poland. Mobilisation was witnessed in both tribes, which is not entirely reassuring. I have written several times Poland was divided as never before. Now the turnout is higher, but the rift is only deeper.

After losing control over the upper house of the parliament, PiS began to falter and was hit by a series of missteps (to my delight).

Media report of attempts to buy off Senate deputies in order to win majority there, laying bare end justifies the means method of handling political affairs.

Mr Banaś, kept away in the run-up to the election, refused to stand down from his position of Supreme Audit Office chairman, albeit even politicians of PiS admit given evidence of his criminal deeds, he was supposed to be file a resignation.

The battle for sex education yet another time casts light on backwardness of the party and if the government decides to pursue harsher punishments (up to five years of imprisonment) for educating teenagers on human sexuality, strong social backlash is in the offing.

Jarosław Gowin and Zbigniew Ziobro, formally leaders of two other parties which have formed a coalition with PiS and whose candidates have won twice as much seats in the parliament than four years ago, hold out for more influence on the government line-up and conspire to oust Mr Morawiecki from the prime minister’s seat.

I sincerely hope PiS is already filled with as much hubris as comes before the fall. In the coming months they might stumble and fall more frequently, yet it will not wean their electorate off them so quickly. Majority of people who support PiS, except the party’s hardcore electorate, cannot see further than the end of their noses, so the loss of pecuniary allowances will prompt them to verify their affinity with PiS. We will have to endure four years of PiS in power, yet their advances to spoil Poland will (hopefully) be thwarted by the upper house. 

With the oncoming economic misery (not just the GDP growth deceleration but inevitable inflation driven by enterprises inability to absorb cost pressures) PiS should stay in power to face the music, not the opposition, if the Poland is to benefit in the long term from being freed up from the detrimental rule of PiS.

The vote is over

Fresh thoughts at the sight of exit polls…

In the era of Internet unofficial results (#bazarek) were circulated over the day. Early in the afternoon they filled with dread (over 55% for PiS), then reports of record-high turnout in Warsaw brought about a surge of optimism. Last two hours before 9 p.m. were a rollercoaster…

I would not get attached to the results, since IPSOS pollsters screwed it up all the way in May 2019 and thanks to large mobilisation in big cities after sunset. PiS might still lose simple majority, but stands little chance to get 60% of seats necessary to reject president’s veto.

I strolled around Natolin between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. and crowds were still wandering to polling stations. The turnout in Ursynów has most likely exceeded 80%. Proud of my neighbours.

Regardless of the outcome, higher turnout signals Poles increasingly wish to participate in democracy and whoever wields power, is more legitimate to do so.

Thirdly, let’s wait for final results, including allocation of seats to the upper house. They will determine the scale of relative victory / defeat of PiS and the opposition. Nevertheless, seat-wise, the ruling party most probably has not made as big progress as it wished and is aware of number of Poles standing up against its rule (just to remind, according to preliminary results it wins 4 more seats in the lower house than it did in 2015).

Who laughs the last, laughs the best.

I have done my bit and contributed to turning down the rule of PiS. My conscience is clear… A broader follow-up next week.

A message to my compatriots one week ahead of the election…

…which is battle for the shape of Poland in years to come. I have not authored the italicised text below. It has been written by professor Jan Widacki in July 2019 and can be read in Polish here.

The very presence of PiS does not bring misery on Poland; the tragedy is that 40% of Poles see eye to eye with PiS. Even if the opposition miraculously won the autumnal election, set against hard-line electorate PiS it would have their hands tied, particularly they would not hold Kaczynski’s party accountable for violating the constitution nor for all other ignoble deeds. Putting any politician of PiS before the State Tribunal is out of reach. To make it happen, the opposition needs a swingeing victory over PiS, an score it does not stand a chance to get. Mending the institutions of the democratic state looms impossible as well. We will be wallowing in the mire for a long time, pushed aside to the sidelines of Europe.

Under those circumstances, focusing on PiS makes no sense; the attention has to be paid to the 40% of Poles who vote for PiS. Poking fun or insulting them does the opposite effect. It prompts them to close ranks and induces their affinity with those not only do not ridicule them, but who turn their drawbacks and wicked instincts into merits, namely with PiS.

For my part…

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Next Sunday do not stay passive, go to your polling station and cast your vote. It does not matter PiS wins anyway. Every vote against them decreases their majority in the parliament and their legitimacy to wield autocratic power. In this fight of David against Goliat if they do not win simple majority, I will call it a victory. I hopes Poles get mobilised as they did 12 years ago. Kaczynski fears it already, mind it!