Successful Year 2018: SŽDC Continued Reconstructions of Railway Lines, Did Not Forget Carriers and Passengers Either

16.01.2019

The past year 2018 was successful for Správa železniční dopravní cesty (SŽDC), one of the biggest final recipients of financial resources from the current Operational Programme Transport. At the end of the year, it had an approved contribution equalling 99.5% from the total allocated sum. Only CZK 19 billion was invested into railway infrastructure modernization and mechanization. Better parameters of railway lines brought modifications of repair works; a considerable improvement occurred also in the field of cooperation with carriers and better services for passengers.

Infrastructure investments for CZK 19 billion

SŽDC continued its high pace of reconstructions and lines’ modernization. Together with investments into mechanization, is spent a sum of CZK 19 billion for this chapter. ”During last year, 60 constructions with investment costs exceeding CZK 30 million were carried out in total, more than 300 bigger constructions were in preparation. 450 lesser investments focused on safety at railway crossings, construction, reconstruction or modernization of lines and information systems were in the stage of preparation or implementation“, says Mr. Jiří Svoboda, Director General of SŽDC.

The most important investments into constructions completed in 2018:

• Modernization of the line Rokycany – Plzeň (including the Ejpovice tunnel where rides at speeds of 200 kph will be tested in the second half of this year,
• Reconstruction of safety and signalling equipment Praha Smíchov – Hostivice,
• Increasing line speed in the section Kuřim – Tišnov (new speed up to 120 kph), 
• Increasing line speed in the section Havlíčkův Brod – Okrouhlice (new speed up to 100 kph),
• Optimization of the line Lysá nad Labem – Praha-Vysočany, Čelákovice railway station. 

Implementation of the plan for modernization of the SŽDC railway network continued in 2018 as well. ”The Ministry of Transport approved 55 of our project intents for constructions with a price amounting to CZK 56 billion. From the most important approved investments, we can name especially eight constructions of the Blending Call type with combined financing from the EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) tool and a loan from the European Investment Bank“, explains Mr. Svoboda. The most heavily used corridor sections which were lastly completely reconstructed in the nineties of the previous century will be thus modernized.

Together with preparation, SŽDC submits requests to the European Union for constructions’ co-financing. At the end of 2018, a contribution equalling CZK 36.6 billion has been approved which represents 99.5% from the total sum allocated to SŽDC. However, requests for co-financing submitted for Operational Programme Transport (OPT) 2014–2020 projects amount to a sum of CZK 44.8 billion which is 122% form the sum allocated from OPT and designed for SŽDC. This demonstrates its preparedness to use any possible financial resources not drawn and reserved for other recipients in the Czech Republic.

In 2018, SŽDC acquired final territorial proceedings decisions for several important investments which a launch planned for this year. The Infrastructure Manager already opened respective tenders for optimization of the line Praha-Smíchov – Černošice, the second construction of the Přerov junction reconstruction or a line speed increase in the section Valašské Meziříčí – Hustopeče nad Bečvou.

To accelerate preparations and construction of high-speed lines (HSL), SŽDC selected pilot sections for which it acquired in October 2018 an exception from binding procedures for preparing investments into transport infrastructure, granted by the Ministry of Transport. A common project team was formed together with the German Infrastructure Manager (DB Netz) to prepare the new railway connection Prague – Dresden.

Long-term closure plans are prepared in advance

Introducing long-term planning of line closures was undoubtedly an asset for carriers as plans for the period 2020 and 2021 were approved in 2018 already. A new price for infrastructure usage by a train ride was implemented without problems as well.

Positive news is also a decrease of the number of carriers’ complaints concerning the infrastructure manager. A number of 65 cases represent a decrease by more than 50% compared to the previous year; similarly favourable statistics were noted for the number of justified plaints which amounted to 48.   

The number of repaired passenger buildings grows

Last year, SŽDC spent a sum of almost CZK 750 million for repairs and reconstruction of more than a hundred of passenger buildings. Passengers can now use repaired premises at railway stations Kuřim, Sokolov, Turnov or Litoměřice horní nádraží. SŽDC also joined the national electronic system of lost and found objects. Since last March, almost 300 forgotten objects returned therefore to their owners.

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