Firstly, is photography allowed on PKP stations? I suspect that it might not be, particularly in view of the increased tensions in the area with Ukraine, Kaliningrad etc. but any information on this would be most appreciated.
Yes, absolutely allowed. The only exception is if there's a visible sign prohibiting it. I've never seen such a sign, except at a couple of specific military-related sites.
Secondly, how easy is it to purchase a ticket on PKP particularly at main stations such as Gdansk? I assume that it is much the same as in this country with the possibility of buying a paper ticket, language issues notwithstanding! Again, any inforamtion on this would be most appreciated.
At main stations, the PKP Intercity passenger information offices (which are separate -
https://www.intercity.pl/en/site/for-business/customer-service/centrum-obslugi-pasazera-en.html ) all speak English, but most people simply use the ticket machines or something like the Koleo app:
https://koleo.pl/
Elsewhere, your mileage may vary, but in general, younger people (i.e. under 40) will understand, even if they can't speak.
For long-distance inter-city trains, I would highly recommend booking early and on their website / PKP inter-city app.
Booking early is absolutely essential, but I wouldn't recommend anything from PKP. The Koleo app is *much* better, and you can pretty much buy a ticket for any railway operator there.
That’ll be because some trains on that route are subsidised and therefore subject to regulated fares (TLK and IC) whereas others are run on a commercial basis and therefore not subject to regulated fares (EIC and EIP). On top of that there is promo pricing.
Theoretically the division is like that, but in practice, it's not as transparent. There are a lot of political games going on with PKP Intercity, meaning that the EIC/EIP trains are often being subsidised to make certain calls or routes through subsidies being provided for IC/TLK trains that could be commercially operated. It would take a lengthy essay to explain it all, but the gist is that prices are being set according to political will and not according to actual market demand. PKP Intercity claim otherwise, but journalists have repeatedly looked for evidence of the yield management system they claim to use, and it's simply not there.
The general issue with PKP Intercity is that it's very political, and so routes that should attract sky-high fares such as Kołobrzeg-Kraków on a summer Saturday is often priced exactly the same as a train going from Warsaw to Wrocław on a cold wet Tuesday evening in winter. Then there are a lot of yield management issues, because politicians are frankly afraid to implement proper commercial pricing for EIC/EIP trains.
Going further, there's also a problem that there's simply no logic as to which trains are EIC and which are IC. The standard is often exactly the same, or even worse in EIC than in IC. For instance, Wrocław-Warsaw should be mostly EIC trains with responsive route pricing, just as LOT does. The problem is that any attempt to change the current swathe of IC trains into an EIC offering would result in political carnage, even though people travelling Wrocław-Warsaw don't need subsidised trains.
A good example of the stupidity on PKP Intercity comes from the trains from Warsaw to Gdynia in summer. 15 commercial trains and 10 subsidised trains operate then, while in winter, there are 14 commercial and 8 subsidised. In summer, these trains could easily be commercial-only, because PKP Intercity doesn't need a subsidy to fill them. In winter, it's a different story, and most trains should probably be subsidised, except during certain times (Friday afternoon, Sunday afternoon/evening). But any attempt to change this in a serious way would receive huge political backlash, and so the nonsense remains.
The same nonsense also stops PKP Intercity from attracting business passengers with a genuinely premium offering. There's a certain demand there for the EIP trains to have a high quality carriage with 1+1 seating, which would offer a meal and conditions suitable for working. But no-one in the government will approve such a thing, because of the political backlash.
And this is before we discuss the competition between PKP Intercity and the provincial carriers on clearly regional routes, where PKP Intercity shouldn't even be trying to win passengers.
