Feasibility Study for New Line Prague – Beroun Has Been Approved

The so-called Option C-I which includes the new route in the whole length of the Praha-Smíchov – Beroun section with a branching for freight transport to the Malá Chuchle area and a connection to Braník Bridge within a railway freight line through the Prague junction was assessed as the most suitable one. The new route is 26.3 km long (including the branch for freight transport) while 24.8 km of the new route is situated in a tunnel (there will be a single-track tube for each line track).  

”The C-I option respects the proposal known for many years but we were able to find sufficient sustainable assets for such a demanding investment due also to electrification and increasing capacity of this route from the state border in direction to Nurnberg only now“, said Mr. Jiří Svoboda, Director General of SŽDC.

Due to the construction’s extent and technical demandingness, the implementation’s launch can be expected in 2028. The new line is fully adapted to mixed transport (both passenger and freight) which had an impact on the line profile as well as maximum line speed of 200 kph.

The estimated extent of long-distance and fast interregional passenger transport in the C-I option new route is represented e.g. by a 30-minutes interval of Ex trains with a journey time Praha hlavní nádraží  – Plzeň hlavní nádraží approx. 51 minutes (approx. 44 minutes from Praha-Smíchov), during peak times by four train connections analogical to current lines R16 and R26 with journey times Praha hlavní nádraží – Beroun approx. 19 minutes (approx. 12 minutes from Praha-Smíchov). On the current route through Berounka River valley, passenger regional transport can be fully reinforced with increased reliability, e.g. with a 10-minutes peak interval up to Řevnice.

Freight transport will be not slowed down due to waiting for free routes on the current line; it will be able to use them operatively either on the new line or on the old one. During transport peaks, there will be free capacity on the new route for freight transport approximately every 30 minutes.

The new route is also very important for possible use by passenger and freight transport in case of closures or exceptional events on the old line which does not have a corresponding alternative just now.

The feasibility study was ordered in 2017. Its objective was to prepare suggestions for increasing capacity on the line Prague – Plzeň in project options dealing especially with the most critical section Prague – Řevnice – Beroun. The main objective was to find an economically sustainable technical solution not only for the target extent of passenger transport but especially for freight transport. Besides other expected assets of the suggestion such as decreasing journey times, it was necessary to minimize environmental impacts (the protected landscape area “Czech Karst” predominates the locality being dealt with); at the same time, the objective was to decrease the noise burden of trains passing the densely built-up area in the Berounka River valley.

Soubory ke stažení