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2019 annual report by the Railway Passenger Rights’ Ombudsman

15.06.2020

263 applications to start a proceeding and 184 other applications were filed with the Railway Passenger Rights’ Ombudsman in 2019. 30% of the proceedings were the appeals against no-ticket penalties, 24% - requests for compensation for late or cancelled trains and 19% - requests for reimbursement for unused tickets. Those are the details from the annual report by Railway Passenger Rights’ Ombudsman for 2019.

In the report one can find statistical data, categories of matters handled by the Ombudsman, information on the length of proceedings and the percentage of proceedings which have ended with a verdict satisfactory for both sides. Also guidelines on how to deal with the most frequent problems have been added to the report.

A proceeding conducted by the Ombudsman in 2019 lasted 39 days on average. 64% of proceedings ended with an agreement accepted by both sides. In almost 11% of cases the Ombudsman had to refuse to start the procedure. The most frequent reason for refusal was the lack of previous contact with the carrier by the affected passenger. The Ombudsman may only start a proceeding when a traveller had previously tried to solve the matter through direct contact with the railway carrier.

Some of the problems, with which the Ombudsman deals, are of repeatable nature. So that in the future such repetitions are avoided the Ombudsman has also prepared guidelines on how the entrepreneurs and passengers should act on disputable issues. This year's guidelines centre around the means to handle complaints and the duty to verify the personal data during the ticket purchase.

The report and guidelines can be found on the Ombudsman's website (Polish version only).

 
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