Poland bus 666 to Hel changes name due to pressure from Christian groups

The bus line no 666 to the town of Hel. Photo / Michał Beim

If you always wanted to ride the 666 bus to Hel, you better get in quick; the Polish route will change its number to 669 later this month following pressure from Christian groups.

That the bus to Hel, a town on the Baltic coast, was 666 was always amusing to tourists and some locals. The number symbolises the devil in the bible, while Hel sounds and looks similar to the English word, hell.

However, not everyone finds the joke funny and Christian groups have finally pressured the bus operator to change the route name.

PKS Gydnia, the operator that runs the service, announced it would change 666 to 669 in a social media post. “This year, we’re turning the last 6 upside down!” read a post about the updated timetable.

The line has been called 666 since 2006, according to local news site Trojmiasto.pl, a joke that prompted many people to visit so they could ride the line.

However, from June 24, the service will be 669. PKS Gydnia was already considering the change, according to Polish media, but the process was sped up by pressure from Christian groups.

While hell is typically thought of as a fiery, terrible place, Hel is a richly forested peninsula that is often crowded with tourists enjoying the white sandy beaches, warm climate and diverse marine life.

According to Staypoland.com, a travel website, the town is “one of the most popular Polish holiday resorts”.

Critics of the bus route acknowledge that Hel is not actually hell (which is piekło in Polish), but say the joke is not respectful.

Conservative Catholic group Fronda has advocated for the name change since 2018. In an article, it said the joke was not innocent and had “malicious” roots.

“Hell is the negation of humanity. It is eternal death and suffering,” the article stated, adding that people would only laugh if they didn’t understand the gravity of that.

PKS Gdynia’s designer, Marcin Szwaczyk, said they had received complaints for over a decade. However, if the change was received poorly by the public, they wouldn’t rule out changing it back to 666 later.

On Facebook, people claimed the bus operator was stepping back from what had been a great marketing tactic.

One user wrote that, while they weren’t sure whether the name had been intentionally chosen to gain global attention, it had.

“I have read about line 666 on Hel many times on foreign sites,” they wrote. “I am convinced tourists, who could probably have gone quicker by train, took the bus for fun.”