It’s Highway to Hel no more in Poland, as the operator of the bus that’s in charge of the route going to a popular tourist site in the Eastern European country changed its number from 666 to 669.
Poland’s bus route 666 to Hel has been changed after facing backlash for ‘promoting satanism’ pic.twitter.com/Yy6NDnJ5MQ
— No Jumper (@nojumper) June 18, 2023
PKS Gdynia, the local bus operator responsible for managing routes to the famous Polish town on the country’s Baltic coast, announced that its Bus 666 would no longer run to Hel and would run the route using the number 669 from June 24th.
Reports from Polish media said the bus operator was pressured to make the adjustment after conservative Christian groups protested against the route, pushing for the change in the route’s number. However, PKS Gdynia was already considering returning to the older number due to public outcry.
That's right. Allow religious zealots to brutally murder a good time for everyone else.
— Bunnyhug Bandit (@BunnyhugBandit) June 14, 2023
In an update about the timetable for their buses, the employees of PKS Gdynia informed about the change on social media, where they said: “This year, we’re turning the last 6 upside down!” without providing more information on the change.
Krzysztof Nadolski reacted on the official Facebook page of the bus company and criticized the decision, saying that PKS Gdynia killed a brilliant marketing opportunity.
“It was an advertisement for the whole world. I have read about line 666 on Hel many times on foreign sites. I am convinced tourists, who could probably have gone quicker by train, took the bus for fun. I don’t know if the number was accidental or deliberate marketing, but it sure caught attention.” Nadolski said.
According to the online Polish news portal Trojmiasto.pl, PKS Gdynia initially operated the line to Hel under the number 666, often associated with the Devil, as a local joke in 2006. But the stunt attracted riders from Poland and other countries. Some tourists who rode the bus simply said they took bus 666 to Hel.
— KNOWN STUDIO NEWS (@_KNOWN_STUDIO_) June 17, 2023
This bus route number to Hel is not the only pun in Polish public transport. In the city of Wrocław, a circular tram line has been named “zero” for decades.
Among the groups that called for the route number’s change was Fronda.pl, a conservative Catholic website. They demanded the change in 2018, saying that some people consider it “an innocent joke,” but it was “hard not to consider it a malicious inspiration.”
I can't fathom what it must be like to be terrified of a series of numbers.
— (@_Esoterrorca_) June 16, 2023
The group also complained about how Polish journalists, even Catholics, enjoyed the joke. While Fronda conceded that Hel was actually not an underworld for the dead, they insisted that the pun would give credence to the “horror of soul death” and make people less confident about the afterlife. In the Polish language, the word for hell is piekło.
Hel became wildly popular for its name and being a long, verdant peninsula with white sand beaches. The town is so popular tourists have lamented that it has been overcrowded.
Travel website Staypoland.com said Hel provided “exceptional holiday opportunities” with its long beaches, several headlands, a seal center, a port, and a promenade. The town also has a “typical healthy maritime climate” that “makes the place a real paradise for those who just enjoy sunbathing and swimming in the sea.”
