Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacji Samochodowej (commonly abbreviated PKS, can be translated as ''Motor Transport Company'') is a major Polish

enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterpris ...

dealing with inter-city

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

using coaches.

History

It was created as a

state enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goo ...

in 1945 in post-war

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

Poland as ''Państwowa Komunikacja Samochodowa'' (''State Motor Transport''). Until 1989 it had a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

on suburban and interurban bus transport in Poland. After the fall of communism, PKS was divided into 176 local operations. 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 Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...

or Connex. In 2020 about 100 'PKS' companies were still in existence although not all were still involved in transport. PKS

Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...

went bankrupt in 2022.

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 floode ...

, killing 30 people. In the other accident, known as the Poland bus disaster of 1994, 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