What will the new Prague railway junction look like? Where will the tunnels lead? And why does Prague need it?

Prague is the most important railway junction in the Czech Republic. It is intersected on literally all sides by suburban, regional and long-distance passenger and freight railway lines. But their capacity is no longer sufficient. We need to get more trains into Prague. The existing lines are overloaded; new trains have nowhere to go. Suburban trains are getting fuller and fuller, and the demand for daily train travel to the capital continues to increase: according to Ropid data, the number of passengers has doubled over the last 15 years. The lines are now shared by suburban, long-distance and freight trains, leading to delays and irregularities. Suburban passenger transport lacks fast services from all important directions and connections to metro lines. Many of the stations and stops are outdated and do not offer passengers sufficient comfort. That is why the feasibility study for the Prague railway junction was created, to determine what the track’s future capacity should be so that it can meet the growing demand for long-distance lines, including high-speed ones, as well as suburban transport.

A crucial element of the future railway network will be two new tunnels under the centre of Prague, which will enable the separation of suburban and long-distance traffic and improve overall services between Prague’s centre and surroundings. The tunnels will serve the suburban S lines. The 11 km long route will connect Smíchov, Vršovice and Masaryk Railway Stations. Up to 16 services per hour will run in the tunnels in each direction. New stops will be created on the route, such as Karlín, Florenc, Wenceslas Square and Karlovo náměstí. The Main Station with new underground platforms will be the heart of the whole junction.

IPR Prague participated in the creation of this study by performing two roles. The first one was consultative, because in 2018 we prepared the Strategy for the Development of Metropolitan Railways in Prague, which was a kind of assignment from the city for the study to be carried out by the Railway Administration, and we then monitored whether the city’s expectations were being met. The second was an active role, where we were directly involved in the development of a forward-looking transport model that told us how many people would be travelling on which lines in the future.

In the future, Prague will be connected to the pan-European network of high-speed rail (HSR) lines. Where and how fast will we get from here in 30 years’ time?

The planned development of high-speed transport applies strong pressure for the modification of the Prague railway junction. To enable it to fully be a part of the HSR network, besides new tracks for high-speed trains, Prague also needs to modernise the current railway lines and increase their capacity. High-speed rail lines bring a number of benefits—they will speed up transport, thanks to which, for example, people from Ústí nad Labem will no longer have to move to Prague for work, because they can get to the city by high-speed train as quickly as from the capital’s suburbs. This opportunity for urban development can also be a certain threat—HSR is obviously a significant intrusion into the landscape, but it can also raise the price of real estate in the regions thanks to better accessibility.

High-speed lines will connect Prague to Europe from three main directions—Dresden, Wrocław and Vienna/Katowice/Bratislava. On these lines, express trains will reach speeds in excess of 300 kilometres per hour. These trains will run from Ústí nad Labem to the Main Station in 26 minutes and from Roudnice nad Labem in just 18. The HSR trains are expected to consume up to seven times less energy and CO₂ than car transport. Work on the first sections will start in the next few years and the entire system should be operational by 2050. However, Prague is also interested in other directions for the fast service system—especially west to Nuremberg, where there is an important hub for German ICE trains.

What will the development around the Main Station look like?

The Main Station is the focal point for the whole system. There are going to be big investments not only from the Railway Administration but also from the city. Metro line D will be extended from Náměstí Míru through the Main Station to Náměstí Republiky. The plan is to have a new passenger hall with a tram stop right outside the entrance. This is a significant improvement for two reasons—on the one hand it will improve the comfort of passengers, who today have to walk through the whole dreary park to get to a tram in Bolzanova Street, and on the other hand it will strengthen the tram network in the centre, which today largely depends on the tram services along Jindřišská and Vodičková. There will also be two new levels of the underground parts of the Main Station where S line trains line will run. While today around 100,000 people transfer here every day, according to the models in the future this figure will rise to more than 350,000 passengers.

A lot of investments are currently being made to develop public transport. How good is Prague’s public transport? Where in Prague will new tracks be built?

Prague’s public transport is of a very good standard. It’s safe, reliable and affordable. A total of 75% of all journeys in the city are made in an environmentally friendly way, and Praguers make 37% of their journeys in the city by public transport. But the future belongs primarily to rail transport. Up to 70% of public transport capacity in Prague today is provided by metro, trams and rail. In addition, Prague has one of the most extensive and busiest tram networks in Europe. Its total length is now over 150 kilometres and it carries 368 million passengers a year.

However, as some tram routes were closed in the 1970s and 1980s in connection with the construction of the metro, there is now a lack of transport capacity in the city centre and a lack of suitable alternatives to the busiest lines. For this reason, for example, tram tracks are returning to Wenceslas Square today. New districts in transformation areas in the wider city centre, such as Bubny-Zatory and the Žižkov Freight Station, will also be connected to the tram network. In addition, further extensions of tram lines towards the outskirts of the city are planned, as well as the development of “tangential services”—lines that avoid the centre and connect the outskirts of the compact city. These services will include the new lines between Smíchov and Podolí via Dvorecký Bridge and the planned continuation of the line via Budějovická to Michle. If all the plans come to fruition, we could have up to 250 km of tracks in Prague in the future.

How far along is the construction of metro line D?

After many decades of planning, it is finally being built! The new route will greatly help the whole south of Prague. It will be 10.6 km long and have a total of ten stations. The first stage will lead from Pankrác to Písnice via Krč, Nové Dvory and Libuš. Later, the line will be extended north through Náměstí Míru and the Main Station to Náměstí Republiky. In addition, new developments will be built around the new stations. For example, the Prague Development Company plans to build a brand new district with affordable housing for 5,000 people near Nové Dvory station.

Construction work is underway on Dvorecký Bridge, which will connect Podolí and Smíchov. An interesting public space is planned at both ends. What will it look like? When will the bridge be ready?

The bridge should be operational in February 2026. The bridge’s design is the result of an architectural competition; it is not a standard concept. Everything is very complicated, but also beautiful. The bridge, whose morphology is reminiscent of cubism, is not only a necessary connection between Podolí and Smíchov, but also forms the beginning of the planned tangential services in the tram network. In addition to the transport function itself, it will offer public space at both ends. On the Podolí side, cultural and recreational facilities will be built in the form of a climbing wall, skate park and amphitheatre. A park in the form of a light garden will be built in Smíchov and the artist Krištof Kintera will place street lights from around the world in it. The bridge will serve trams, buses, cyclists and pedestrians.

What are the biggest transport problems in Prague?

It is clearly the ever-increasing commuting to the city. About 250,000 people commute every day—for work, schools, services, etc. And most of these trips are made by car. The cars are the biggest problem. This is due to the increase in the population in the ring around Prague, from which people regularly commute for work or school. I always say, with a slight exaggeration, that the best car is the one that doesn’t reach Prague. Naturally, I don’t mean that it breaks down, but that people can choose another, equally attractive and comfortable option—for example, a comfortable suburban train, or they can drive to a P+R car park and then continue to the centre by train or metro.

You have been at IPR since 2001. What roles have you played here? What do you like most about your job?

I was originally a transport engineer, so I started out in the Office of Transport Infrastructure. I gradually became its head, then head of the Department of Infrastructure and later Deputy Director for Professional Activities. In practice, this means that I represent the director in his absence, coordinate our professional departments, ensure that projects are coherent and cover various multi-sectional projects, such as the Prague metropolitan region spatial study. My work is interesting and very variable. Although I’m always dealing with the same thing, i.e. the development of Prague, the circumstances change. I deal with new people, new partners. Recently, I was really happy about a certain progressive attitude from the Railway Administration and good communication with TSK. But I’m most excited when things actually start to happen. The disadvantage for us planners is that we live in plans and the distant future. The reward for me is not when a project becomes operational, but when it starts to be built. That’s usually the point at which our professional role as IPR ends. The last time, for example, was when metro line D or Dvorecký Bridge started to be built.

What does the Department of Infrastructure do?

We are planners and designers, visionaries and pragmatists. I guess that’s how I’d sum it up. Our department guarantees the conceptual development of infrastructure, i.e. the metro, tram lines, road transport and cycling. We focus on transport, technical and green infrastructure in the city and the landscape. It is a very varied and often contradictory activity. All transport construction projects, and especially large ones, require accompanying technical infrastructure, such as utility networks, sewers and so on. In addition, we always try to incorporate it into the landscape so that the area is still easily passable and the impact on it is minimised, meaning landscape design is part of a project.

Our department includes three offices—the transport, technical and green infrastructure offices. We are responsible for the maintenance and operation of the forward-looking transport model, as well as the flood model for Prague. Together with Prague City Hall we have created Standards for Tree Planting—a document that defines how trees should be planted and cared for, so that they thrive and do not die. We are also currently working on the Green Infrastructure Concept, which will enable the creation of continuous networks of green spaces across the city.

How has transport infrastructure planning changed over the last ten years?

Quite a lot, there is much more emphasis on the quality of public spaces. It is often very difficult to fit all the requirements into one small space. But we need to take good care of public spaces, trees and green space, as they have clear positive impacts on the city’s climate. We are also seeing a greater degree of engagement from people. People now commonly participate in projects, discuss them (not only in CAMP) and give us feedback. Transport construction projects often delight many people who find it easier to get around, but bother others who live near them. A road simply has to go somewhere, and more or less nobody wants it to be near their home. In this respect, participation in transport development is sometimes more dramatic than other discussions, but it is certainly an integral part of the process.

We still have a large reserve in cycling. Cycle paths are being created here, but in a disjointed manner. This is mainly due to property issues—in order to make independent, segregated infrastructure for cyclists, we have to buy up land. The lots aren’t big, but there are a lot of them and they have a lot of owners. This is why seemingly randomly-spaced cycle paths are often created that do not connect to each other. TSK is currently developing a pilot project for a citywide backbone cycle path, which should be prepared 1and gradually implemented in stages. So I see hope for some improvement here as well.