30 years of the transformation of non-urban public transport in Poland’s peripheral areas — what went wrong?

Transport-based social exclusion is currently a serious social problem in Poland, and one which is apparently most severe at the level of the county (Polish powiat) in the south-east of the country, including the Beskid Niski and Bieszczady Mountains. A deeper illustration of this problem requires both observation of changes in the suburban public-transport network and the identification of areas in which this has deteriorated significantly in quantity and quality. The chosen starting point for the research was therefore 1990, as a year in which — on the one hand — the Polish economy was already shifted to the new free-market principles; while — on the other — state PKS (Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacji Samochodowej) non-urban bus transport enterprises still dominated public transport. The endpoint of the study is then the beginning of 2019 (the author’s research year). The article introduced here seeks to identify and present cartographically the changes affecting the public-transport network in the study area over the last 30 years, as well as to point to possible consequences of these processes. The background of the described changes is also discussed, as are the observed consequences of what is taking place.