Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacji Samochodowej (commonly abbreviated PKS, can be translated as ''Motor Transport Company'') is a major Polish enterprise dealing with inter-city public transport using coaches.

History

It was created as a

state enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

in 1945 in post-war

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

Poland as ''Państwowa Komunikacja Samochodowa'' (''State Motor Transport''). Until 1989 it had a monopoly on suburban and interurban bus transport in Poland. After the fall of communism, PKS was divided into 176 local operations. :pl:Państwowa Komunikacja Samochodowa In 1992 it was renamed to its current name. The local operations had different fates. Some were retained by the government, some were acquired by local authorities, some merged, some failed and others were acquired by outsiders such as Arriva or Connex. In 2020 about 100 'PKS' companies were still in existence although not all were still involved in transport.

Incidents

PKS buses were involved in two major accidents in Poland. The first one occurred in 1978, when two buses fell 18 m from a bridge into the

Żywiec Lake Żywiec Lake (Polish: ''Jezioro Żywieckie'') is a reservoir on the Soła river in southern Poland, near the town of Żywiec. It was created in 1966, when several villages in the area, such as Zarzecze, Tresna, Zadziel and Old Żywiec were flooded ...

, killing 30 people. In the other accident, known as the

Poland bus disaster of 1994 Poland's bus disaster of 1994 was a bus crash near Gdańsk involving a commuter bus PKS (''Polska Komunikacja Samochodowa'') that veered into a road-side tree. In the accident, 32 people died and 43 were injured. Accident The accident occurred ...

, an overcrowded bus driving at 60 km/h (10 km/h over the speed limit) collided with a tree, killing 32 people. This remains the worst road disaster in Poland's history.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Panstwowa Komunikacja Samochodowa Public transport in Poland Transport operators of Poland Government-owned companies of Poland Transport companies established in 1945 1945 establishments in Poland