Warsaw. Advertisements have disappeared from the subway station

In mid-January we informed on tvnwarszawa.pl that Mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski withheld the decision of the Warsaw Metro regarding advertising in the station area and the passages leading to them. It was e.g. reaction to the letter of the Commissioner for Citizens’ Rights, who wrote that “a lot of controversy is caused by the installation of new, illuminated advertising carriers at the stations of the first line of the Warsaw metro. Passengers complain that the advertisements (…) shock them with too intense light”.

As the Ombudsman pointed out in the letter, “the carriers emit strong light and have a large display area, moreover, they were grouped in a large number – adjacent – on the congestion walls of the station, which means that the effect of adverse impact on users is strengthened by bright and strong lighting of the entire station “.

Last year, Rafał Trzaskowski commissioned an audit of the contracts signed between the advertising operator and Metro Warszawskie. The shortcomings were not indicated, but in the opinion of the president, “the actions taken were hasty”.

Currently, passengers using the first metro line can see empty seats for advertising. The operator withdrew them from both old and new carriers. According to the industry portal transport-publiczny.pl Anna Bartoń, spokeswoman for the Warsaw Metro, “a substantive assessment of the proposed modernization solutions is being carried out and the carriers are being verified.” – After performing the necessary analyzes, we will be able to inform you about further activities in this area in the near future. The overall implementation of the audit task will end in June, she informed.

The operator of advertisements in Metro Warszawskie comments on their dismantling: – Suspension of advertising in Metro is a consequence of suspension of the contract with Ströer Polska by Metro. This decision has been in force since December 6, 2022. Suspensions not provided for in the agreements between Metro and Ströer Polska. On that day, Mayor Trzaskowski commissioned an audit of the contracts between us and Metro Warszawskie. The audit ended on December 19. No legal or other violations were found. Nevertheless, Metro’s decision to freeze our contracts remains in effect to this day. The freezing of relations was related to media publications, Bartosz Barański from the press office of the Stroer company said, quoted by transport-publiczny.pl. – The current situation is incomprehensible to us, but we hope that Metro will change its attitude and restore normal relations resulting from contracts and long-term, uninterrupted cooperation. Cooperation beneficial to both parties – added Barański.

On Friday, President Trzaskowski himself referred to the issue of confusion with advertising in the subway. – Decisions must be made as transparently as possible, based on tenders. We will definitely reach an agreement, the president assured. – Specialists from our offices are meeting about what this policy should look like. The point is that these rules should be worked out together – added Trzaskowski.

He emphasized that making such decisions should “be based on one strategy, and not that each company should make decisions without general guidelines” – It is important that these points serve information, but that they are also aesthetic and fit in with the city’s strategy – he concluded.

We described the problem on tvnwarszawa.pl at the end of November. For mounting advertising media on the congestion walls of the Służew and Ursynów stations our reader noticed. Mr Paweł claimed that the Warsaw Metro, by installing advertisements in this place, destroys the mosaic, which “is a comprehensive artistic composition”.

This solution was also regretted by Jakub Jastrzębski, a Varsavianist, who runs the “Historia Metro w Warszawie” page on Facebook. “It’s outrageous because this mosaic, the so-called graphic distinguishing feature, is one of the relics of the original design concept of the Warsaw subway from the 1980s,” he wrote at the time.

Metro Warszawskie, when asked about such a solution, only reported that “advertising media on the M1 line are replaced due to the need to standardize them and thus increase the aesthetic level of the station’s design”.