Municipal transport
There are plenty of tram and bus lines in service in Kraków that help you get around the city and go beyond its limits (e.g. to Wieliczka). It often makes sense to give up the car for the sake of public transport, especially in the city centre.
Maps of city transport lines are available on the website of the Municipal Transport Facility (Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne, MPK), and the timetables can be found on its website and at individual stops.
Finding your connection: krakow.jakdojade.pl
On Sundays and holidays of the summer season vintage trams travel the streets of Kraków. More information: www.muzealna.org
Tickets
The same tickets apply throughout the city zone for all trams and buses, irrespective of line number. On the metropolitan bus lines (numbers starting with 2, 3, and 9) you can use the same tickets if you don’t intend to cross the city limits. Should you, however, intend to do so, you need a more expensive metropolitan (aglomeracyjny) ticket.
Types of tickets available:
- single fares: valid for one ride on a given line (independent of travelling time) or with line changes (valid for up to 40 minutes from the moment of stamping i.e. validating)
- double fares: valid for two individual rides (must be validated again at the start of the second ride)
- time-restricted, allowing unlimited number of changes or rides, and valid for 20 min, 50 min, 90 min, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and 7 days respectively.
Tickets require validating (stamping) immediately on entering the tram or bus. Single fares and time-restricted tickets need to be stamped only once. The validity of time-restricted tickets can be determined from the last four digits on the printout from the ticket punch: this is the precise time when the ticket was validated.
Ticket prices on municipal transport
Groups entitled to reduced fares:
- students with valid Polish school ID
- Polish university students under 26 and doctoral students under 35
- students of foreign schools under 26 with valid ISIC and/or EURO 26 Student Card
- Polish OAPs under 70
Children under four and persons over 70 travel for free irrespective of the country of origin (provided they have a valid ID stating their age).
There are no additional fees for luggage.
Tickets are available from:
- ticket machines: on selected stops (nearly all stops in the city centre are equipped with those), machines onboard buses and trams (CAUTION: they offer different options of payment: coins or cards, depending on the model)
- kiosks, selected newsagents and corner shops
- travel card sales points (Punkt Sprzedaży Biletów Okresowych MPK, e.g. at ul. Podwale 3/5, ul. św. Wawrzyńca 4); this is where you can also buy personalised travel cards e.g. for 1 or 6 months.