Polish railways carry one million Ukrainians free of charge

Over a million Ukrainians have travelled for free on PKP Intercity, the Polish railway operator, a member of the company board member said on Wednesday.

PKP Intercity offers free tickets to Ukrainians who have fled the Russian invasion.

"By 12 noon, we had issued 1,050,000 free tickets for Ukrainian citizens," Tomasz Gontarz said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"This shows the scale of the demand we're responding to by offering free transport," he added.

Ukrainian nationals have been able to get economy class tickets free of charge on standard trains since February 26.

PKP Intercity has also added 5,000 carriages to its 1,500 scheduled trains since the crisis started.

Gontarz added that demand for railway tickets now matched that of the peak summer holiday season.

From April, PKP Intercity will modify the rules for the free tickets, which will only be available to Ukrainian women, children, the disabled and people over 60.