Trains return to the line between Sudoměřice and Votice, modernisation of the section nearly finished

The aim of one of the most significant current investment in railway infrastructure was primarily to increase the speed, fluency, comfort and safety of transport. “It is an exceptional construction not only in its scope but also in its technical complexity. Thanks to the approximately 20 kilometres of the new line, the train journey from Prague to South Bohemia will be slightly shorter again,” said Jiří Svoboda, Director General of Správa železnic. He drew attention to the fact that almost the entire section between Sudoměřice and Votice was built on a new line, which is approximately two kilometres shorter than the existing route. The speed of trains will gradually increase up to 200 km/h, and from mid-December, when the new timetable comes into force, the travel time of express trains between Prague and Tábor will be reduced to 59 minutes. The launch of the modernised section between Soběslav and Doubí will bring further time savings. First trains on this line are expected to run in September.

“It will be a significant contribution to improving the railway connection between Prague and České Budějovice”, Minister of Transport Martin Kupka said and added: “Now we need to prepare the last part of the corridor, Nemanice – Ševětín, for construction to achieve a smooth and fast ride along the entire route.” As Minister Kupka pointed out, this will be a very demanding construction financially and therefore, as one of the first railway projects of this type in the Czech Republic, the Ministry is considering to build it in the form of a PPP, i.e. in cooperation between the public and private sector. “We are in a situation where we are trying to catch up with the historical debt in transport infrastructure in a very short time, and if we want to maintain the pace of construction, we cannot rely only on the state budget,” concludes Minister Kupka.

The new line starts in Sudoměřice near Tábor, where it connects to the already completed modernisation of the corridor from Tábor. It runs in parallel with the D3 motorway, through a deep cut with three overpasses and through the 840-metre long Mezno Tunnel near the new stop of the same name, then it continues through another new stop, Střezimíř, to Červený Újezd station. The station in Červený Újezd will be used for train overtaking, passenger trains will stop at the eponymous stop in the perimeter of this station. Another dominant feature of the line is the 660-metre long Deboreč tunnel, followed by the Ješetice stop. In the deep valley between Ješetice and Heřmaničky, builders constructed a total of four elevated guideways 244, 180, 175 and 80 metres long with Heřmaničky stop in-between. The construction ends in front of the railway station Votice, where it connects to the previously completed modernisation of the line Votice – Benešov u Prahy.

The modernisation of one of the last bottlenecks of the fourth railway transit corridor started in May 2018 and will be finally completed next year. The total cost will reach CZK 6.7 billion. The project is co-financed by the European Union from the Cohesion Fund under the Operational Programme Transport 2014–2020. The EU contribution can reach up to CZK 3,966,814,703. National funding is provided by the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure. The contractor is the company OHLA ŽS.

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