SŽDC Prepared an Action Plan for the Two Years to Follow, Based on the Organization Long-Term Strategy

06.12.2018

”The plan contains strategic tasks from individual segments of our company while mentioning the persons responsible and the term of completion. All must be sustained by a sufficient amount of financial resources while using new subsidy scopes which is one of our priorities“, explains Mr. Jiří Svoboda, Director General of SŽDC.

In the operability field, the assignment of the Cyclic Maintenance pilot project is in preparation in order to set the amount of works and to elaborate sample tendering documents. ”We will be discussing this issue with the Ministry of Transport; among others we will deal with the necessity to increase the amount of financial resources compared to the current situation. Our task for the years to follow in this connection will be a correct timing of closures so that impacts on the carriers and passengers remain minimal“, adds Mr. Svoboda.

Apart from this plan, the situation caused in the past by insufficient maintenance of some line sections must be rectified. ”I think that we already succeed in completing this intent. This can be demonstrated i.a. by comparing the lines’ maintenance and repair costs for last year and this year where we can see an increase practically for all Regional Directorates. This year, CZK 9 billion will be used for this chapter which is by 2 billion more than last year. And we assume a further increase for next year“, discloses Mr. Svoboda.

SŽDC will also concentrate on a more effective use of closure times during a complex renewal of backbone lines, especially with use of modern technologies. Procuring new diagnostic vehicles for monitoring the state of the railway superstructure and the catenary designed for speeds up to 230 kph will be of great importance.

As far as other priorities are concerned, we can mention establishing a Rapid Service between important city centres, including a connection between Prague and Brno within the Czech Republic. ”That is why we concentrate  - besides planning a construction of a new high-speed line from Prague to Dresden, being prepared in cooperation with our partners from Germany - also on preparing pilot high-speed lines projects. Their implementation will allow freeing capacities on highly used conventional lines in the vicinity of the biggest city agglomerations“, explains the Director General Mr. Svoboda. As he adds, we intend together with the Ministry of Transport to start cooperating with the Polish side on the preparation of Rapid Service from Prague to Wroclaw.

Completing modernization of the Czech Rail Transit Corridors III and IV and important railway junctions such as Pardubice or Česká Třebová has an equal importance. ”We are simultaneously dealing with corridor sections’ renewal based on new technical parameters. For this purpose, we will have to examine national legal restrictions so that we can introduce a speed of 200 kph as a common travelling standard. We have already chosen four line sections on which we could implement this intent“, says Mr. Svoboda. At the same time, preparations will continue for a conversion of power feeding systems, preceded by a relocation of places where both traction systems meet each other. 

The state organization is also prepared to deal with issues of network services on the railway, based on the requirements and needs of the Ministry of Transport. According to Mr, Svoboda, we are able to assure in this field the functioning of other installations related to providing network services such as left baggage offices, lavatories at railway stations, waiting rooms, installations allowing access to passengers on wheelchairs or equipment designed for servicing carriers.

A sufficient amount of financial resources will have to be assured for all planned investments. Therefore, the Infrastructure Manager will select even more projects for possible drawing of financial resources from a so-called mixed financing or from loan resources of the European Investment Bank. ”We will also examine other sources of financing such as subsidies from the EU Operational Programmes. We actively deal with new subsidy scopes as well, e.g. for decreasing power requirements of buildings; we are also looking for possibilities of using commercial loans”, closed Mr. Svoboda.

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