The right to study, treatment and work cannot depend on having a car.
Sir
Karol Nawrocki
President of Poland
Appeal to sign the Act amending the Public Collective Transport Act
Dear Mr President,
we call for the signing of the Act of 17 July 2026 on the amendment of the Public Collective Transport Act and of certain another laws. The right to study, treatment and work cannot depend on having a car.
Parliament completed its work on the bill after the Sejm examined the Senate's amendments on 31 July 2026. Now it's up to you.
We're not asking you to sign the perfect bill. We ask you to sign the law needed – introducing a nationwide framework for minimum availability of public transport, ordering the work of public authorities and giving local governments fresh organisational and financial tools.
It's a civilian rights case.
Transport exclusion is not just a communication problem. It is simply a real obstacle to the exercise of civilian rights and freedoms.
Access to science, health, work and participation in society becomes illusory if a individual has nothing to get to school, clinic, hospital, office or place of employment.
The Ombudsman points out that the deficiency of transport available makes it difficult, inter alia, to implement constitutional freedom of movement, the right to wellness protection, the right to survey and the right of persons with disabilities to aid public authorities.
Real stories are behind the concept of “excluding transport”. They're employees who have nothing to come back from the shift after the afternoon bus. These are the inhabitants of the village, from which the last course leaves early in the afternoon. They are seniors dependent on their household or neighbors, young people limited in the choice of school and people who cannot afford to keep a car. Children and youth pay a peculiarly advanced price. According to the study prepared by the Polish National Committee of UNICEF, 14 percent of children and adolescents aged 12-19 were classified as being at hazard of transport exclusion. For 44 percent, the availability of transport was crucial erstwhile selecting a secondary school, for 16 percent was a key factor, and 21 percent would have chosen another school if not for transport problems.
The place of residence and the timetable of buses should not find the educational, professional and surviving future of man.
How much does transport exclusion mean? Nela Bochenska
The Act introduces the essential strategy change
The passed law introduces into the Public Collective Transport Act the concept of minimum public transport services and defines their scope.
It provides for at least 4 pairs of connections on working days and 2 couples on Saturdays and holidays between the city which is the seat of the voivod or the city which is the seat of the voivodship seymik and the towns which are the seat of the powiat authorities, and between the town which is the seat of the region and the towns which are the seat of the commune authorities. Within the municipality there is to be a anticipation of access to localities with public facilities, specified as schools, clinics and offices.
The Act establishes the marshal of the voivodship as a transport integrator, provides for the preparation of communication network diagrams and coordination of transport organised by various levels of local government. It gives a chance to limit the situation in which the municipality, the region and the voivodship each pass on responsibility, and the mergers are yet not organized by anyone.
The Act besides regulates the financing of mergers providing statutory minimums. Subsidy agreements covering lines providing statutory minimum will be allowed to be concluded for up to 5 years, which may increase the stableness of the transport and reduce the yearly uncertainty of local governments and passengers. However, this does not mean that the funds are adequate to meet all needs. In the absence of adequate funds in a given group of organisers, the backing will be shared in proportion to the reported demand.
So far, the organisation of transport outside the largest cities has mostly depended on the decision of the self-government, its financial capacity and the interest of commercial carriers. Meanwhile, a socially needed local line may not be viable.
The economical account of the carrier must not be the only criterion determining whether residents will hold access to work, school and doctor.
Hard and without anesthesia
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We have been asking for specified solutions for years
These postulates did not appear today. Already in 1996, as part of Citizens' run “Tira on the tracks”, we called for transport policy to be based on the needs of regions and local communities, to halt the decommissioning of local railway lines and to advance public transport.
Since 2004, the Institute of civilian Affairs has been operating for transport that responds to the regular needs of residents.
In 2017, the Institute of civilian Affairs and the Pro Kolej Foundation announced Manifesto “We, Passengers”. At the time, we wrote a request for a strategy to let access to work, advanced school, office and clinic for all resident, as well as good quality transport available to people with disabilities, common tickets and information about all connections in 1 place. We besides demanded "a clear definition of minimum standards of communication service, which residents may require from a peculiar self-government".
CAPLOT Weekly about our Manifest “We, Passengers”
The passed law mostly responds to the request for a statutory minimum and a clearer allocation of responsibility. However, it does not make a simple mechanics by which the resident can effectively enforce the launch of a peculiar connection.
In 2019, the civilian Affairs Institute supported the creation of the Bus improvement Fund, while informing that the subsidies themselves would not suffice without standards of service corresponding to the real needs of the inhabitants. We already pointed out that a common ticket, a common online timetable and the restoration of rail connections were inactive needed.
A renaissance of local communication or another empty promise? Piotr Rachwalski
The bus improvement fund, created in 2019 at the initiative of the government of Mateusz Morawiecki, the current Act transforms into a Transport Exclusion Fund. Donald Tusk's government so continues this direction, developing instruments to limit transport exclusion. Good solutions for citizens should be developed independently of changes in the parliamentary majority.
This continuity is simply a value. The signing of the Act would besides be in line with the direction declared by the Chancellery of the president of the Republic of Poland, which in November 2025 stressed the request to support solutions to combat communication exclusion and supply citizens with equal access to public transport. It would besides be another step to show that access to public transport can be a substance beyond political divisions.
The Act does not yet destruct transport exclusion, but gives local governments fresh tools to limit them.
Mr. President,
the signing of the bill cannot be considered a solution to the full problem.
The statutory minimum of 4 pairs of connections on working days and 2 couples on Saturdays and holidays concerns connections between the city which is the seat of the voivod or the city which is the seat of the voivodship seymik and the offices of the powiat authorities and between the premises of the powiats and gminas. For another localities, the Act does not specify a minimum number of courses or hours of their execution.
The fresh communications network schemes are intended to cover the current and planned network of organisers, including lines created to counter transport exclusion.
It is an crucial planning tool that will let local governments to identify gaps in the network and plan connections besides to localities not covered by the statutory minimum number of courses. However, the final effect will depend on the decision of the organizers, as the Act does not order a regular line to be run to each locality.
Regular road services carried out on the basis of permits, including commercial courses, may besides be included in the statutory minimum. This does not supply a full warrant of the continuity of the connection, as a commercial carrier can change the timetable or abandon an unrecent line. If specified a merger is restricted or terminated, this shall not exempt the applicable organiser from the work to supply a statutory minimum. The effectiveness of this solution will depend on the velocity of its action and available funding.
In agrarian and urban municipalities, the anticipation of access can be provided as a on-demand journey, ordered at the latest the day before the journey. The organisation, frequency, way of ordering and the amount of fees shall be determined by the competent authorities of the local government and no statutory reductions shall apply to specified journeys. On-demand journeys may be a good solution in places where the number of passengers does not justify the start of a regular line. However, they should not replace regular calls where there is simply a constant request for regular access to work or school.
Not only the number of courses, but their usefulness
The justification for the task and the impact assessment of the regulations are correct to indicate that the exclusion of transport is not only determined by the full absence of a bus. Travel time, distance from the stop, frequency, reliability and cost of travel are besides important.
However, the statutory definition of transport exclusion is narrower and involves exclusion primarily with the absence of minimum services or on-demand journeys. There is so a hazard that the problem will be formally considered solved, although the bus will inactive not let you to arrive at school at 8:00, get to work shifts or come home at night.
“They don’t ride due to the fact that they don’t drive”
Next step: quality standards
The Act does not introduce a common work to operate available low-floor vehicles. Nor does it set general standards for first and last course hours, reliability, maximum fare intervals, availability of stops or affordability.
The statutory minimum should not replace the assessment of local needs. Transport needs of residents of Dynow or Węgorzew are different from Grodzisk Mazowieckie or Leszno. The function of the Act is to warrant a minimum, and the function of local governments is to organize transport that meets the real needs of the inhabitants.
For buses covered by the surcharge, the Act sets the maximum age of the vehicle: 2031 20 years and 15 years. However, the age of the bus alone does not prejudge its availability or quality of transport.
Towards nationwide passenger information. We're inactive waiting for our tickets together.
The Act obliges organizers, operators and carriers to prepare and update timetables utilizing the NETEX standard or a full compatible and interoperable format and to supply these data, among others, to the marshals of voivodships. This is an crucial step towards implementing our call for information in 1 place.
In parallel, the Ministry of Infrastructure, together with NASK, implements the National Access Point task for Multimodal Travel Data (MMIS KPD). The task is implemented from 2026 to 2029. The resulting strategy is to centrally collect and share travel data, including the timetable for public collective transport. This is simply a concrete step towards the postulate that we tabled in the Manifesto "We, Passengers".
On the another hand, there is inactive a second component of this request – tickets valid in all means of transport in the chosen municipality or district.
The signature should start the next step
Mr. President,
We ask you to sign the bill not due to the fact that it is complete. We ask you to sign due to the fact that it creates the foundation of the systemic work of the state and local authorities for the availability of public transport.
The signing of the Act will open the way for the implementation of minimum transport services, fresh rules for network planning and solutions to facilitate access for passengers to information. At the same time, it should start the next stage: providing agrarian residents and tiny towns with real opportunities to get to work, school, doctor and office and return home, defining quality and accessibility standards, bringing the nationwide connection information strategy full operational, introducing common tickets and rebuilding the integrated bus and rail network.
You cannot divide citizens into those who have access to education, treatment, work and public services, and those who, without their own car, stay cut off from them.
Real mobility must not depend on the postal code, the wealth of the portfolio or the goodwill of the carrier.
That is why we call: Mr President, delight sign the bill and support further action to effectively destruct transport exclusion.
With respect
Rafał Górski
President of the Management Board
Institute of civilian Affairs
