I will be travelling around Poland in July. I need train tickets from Katowice-Krakow, Krakow-Zakopane, Zakopane-Tarnow and Tarnow-Katowice. Can I buy all these tickets at the train station in Katowice? I have looked into buying the tickets online, but it costs quite a bit more than buying them at the station.

Thanks.

I don't know if you can or not, but why would you want to anyway?

You can buy each ticket easily at your departure station.

www.polrail.com for timetables etc

You will be better off getting the bus from Krakow to Zakopane anyway. They are frequent, and journey takes about 1.5 hours...the train takes 3+ hours! The bus station is next door to the railway station in Krakow.

Yes, you can pre-buy all your tickets on any major station in POland. However you can also get your ticket right before boarding the train. For foreginers I recomand to get it an evening before, or get to the train station at least an hour before (just to avoid "comunication" stress).
Also if you ever will run out of time and your train is about to leave, jump on the train, walk through it, and find the uniformed conductor (usually the first car behind the engine). Let him know you do not have a ticket. He will give you a paper slip ( you can go now and seat wherever you please) and later on when he walks through the train, you show him that slip and he will write you a ticket and charge you an extra fee (6 zl = 1.7 Euro / $2.7).
Oh, and there is usually plenty of people traveling on the train who speak english and would be happy to chat :-)

Thanks for the replies. Just wanted to get all the tickets before to save time. Why does the bus to Zakopane only take 1.5 hours and the train take 3? Usually trains are faster than buses. Can I book seats for the bus, and if so where should I book them? Have heard that Polish roads are not safe, so was a bit wary of getting the bus.

Train is slow as it gets through the mountains. Besides that, at one point there is a dead end track, and on that station the locomotive has to be switched from front to back.
Polish roads are not the safest on the World, that's true, but probability of that bus getting into an accident is probably not bigger than any other bus on busy vacation road anywhere in the World. You can see the road from Krakow to Zakopane on numerous Youtube videos, just type ZAKOPIANKA or Krakow-Zakopane.
I prefer train as I am not in the hurry, I like my bathroom a bit bigger ;-) and I like to spread out and relax in the 'I class' ....and stick my head out of the window. See my pictures from train Zakopane-Krakow.
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/df069/71a89/9/#1867109

I do also prefer trains. And bus may now be also not in a short time becasue there are some reconstrucions on the road from Krakow to Zakopane and some lines are closed..

I don't think Polish buses are more unsafe than those elsewhere......I am not aware of hundreds of accidents regularly reported, and they were absolutely fine when I visited.

I'd normally prefer the train too (for views and space, not safety), but there is a very big time difference in this case. All guides/tourbooks one reads recommend bus to Zakopane from Krakow for exactly this reason.