Polish bus operator FlixBus has announced that it will resume the “Highway to Hel” route, which was canceled due to Christian criticism, and will return the bus number “666” to this route, writes the BBC.
The specific route was previously served by the local company PKS Gdynia. Conservative religious groups strongly opposed the association of route number 666 with the resort town of Hel, emphasizing the “satanic” associations. Therefore, in 2023, the company changed the route number to 669.
The new route, which will take a remarkable 13 hours in total, will connect Krakow with Hel, and will pass through other major cities, including the capital Warsaw. FlixBus spokesman Aleksander Kalenik told Polish news service TVN24 that
the number 666 was chosen to draw wider attention to the popular holiday route to Hel.
In June 2023, a PKS Gdynia spokesman told the media that the company’s board had come under pressure to change the route number after receiving a long series of letters and requests. The letters may not have been numerous, but they were sent very regularly, insisting on changing the number.
One of Poland’s religious groups has accused the bus operator of spreading Satanism. In the Bible, 666 is called the “number of the beast,” and the Polish name for Hel is missing just one letter to make it the same as the English name for hell. The resort town is located on the coast of the Gulf of Gdańsk and attracts tourists with its sandy beaches, ancient architecture and a seal sanctuary.
Poland is a strongly Catholic country, and the church has traditionally had a wide influence.
Read also: Czech PM’s conflict of interest still on the agenda; EU to withhold subsidies