A bus bearing "666," a number considered ominous in Christian culture, and bound for Hel, a Polish resort town, will run again after three years. The route number had been changed in the past due to opposition from religious groups, but the new operator decided to use 666 again as a marketing move to attract tourists.
According to Euronews and Onet on the 2nd, German long-distance bus company FlixBus set up a new long-haul route this summer linking Krakow in southern Poland to the northern Baltic Sea resort Hel via the capital, Warsaw, and designated the route number as 666. The route departs Krakow at 6 a.m., passes through Warsaw, and arrives in Hel shortly before 8 p.m., taking about 13 hours. FlixBus was said to plan operating the route once a day, seven days a week, during the summer.
Hel is a village at the tip of the Hel Peninsula in Gdansk Bay in northern Poland. It is a seaside resort connected by a slender sandspit about 35 kilometers long and is known as a destination for tourists from across Poland and Europe. The place name is similar in spelling and pronunciation to "Hell" in English, but its actual etymology is said to be unrelated to hell. FlixBus revamped operations to raise awareness of the route to Hel, a popular vacation spot.
This bus number had previously sparked controversy. In Christianity, 666 is considered a number symbolizing the beast or Satan. When regional Polish bus company PKS Gdynia ran a 666 bus to Hel, conservative Catholic groups pushed back, saying it "spreads Satanism (devil worship)." The route number was eventually changed to 669 in 2023. At the time, the company explained it decided to switch to a less contentious number after receiving objections to 666.
However, the 666 bus drew attention among tourists under the nickname "the bus to hell." Some argued the route number itself produced marketing effects, and a petition reportedly called for restoring 666. Poland is considered one of Europe's representative Catholic countries. After news broke that the 666 bus would resume service, some conservative religious groups were said to be pushing back again.