SŽDC Accelerates Preparation of Rapid Service on Our Territory

07.11.2018

Správa železniční dopravní cesty (SŽDC) implements the Resolution of the Government from last May which approved the Programme of developing Railway Rapid Service in the Czech Republic. At present, feasibility studies for the directions RS1/2 Prague – Brno – Břeclav, RS3 in the sections Praha – Beroun/Hořovice and RS4 Prague – Dresden are already being elaborated. The studies will be gradually completed during the two years to follow. In case of the line RS3 Prague – Munich, an important turning point is the currently announced support of modernization of another important cross-border connection on the German side.


”I most certainly welcome the decision of the German Federal Minister of Transport who informed on the upgrade of the electrification and modernization project of the German part of the connection Prague - Munich to the highest (urgent) priority in the Federal plan of traffic routes, including the branch Schwandorf – Nurnberg. This was the culmination of our efforts of more than 10 years for incorporating this project officially among German priorities“, said Mr. Dan Ťok, Minister of Transport of the Czech Republic.

”I am pleased that we were able in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport to acquire support for a considerable improvement of the cross-border connection from Prague to Bavaria. The modernized and electrified railway line from Plzeň will therefore not end in Domažlice and it will continue on the German territory. This will help not only passenger transport, but freight transport as well. At the same time, the importance of the planned tunnel between Prague and Beroun will increase too“, said Mr. Jiří Svoboda, Director General of SŽDC.

By the government resolution, the Czech Republic accepted the open operation concept, according to which the high-speed lines (HSL) will be part of the general transport system accessible to the wide public and usable for daily needs. Thanks to this fact, they will be compatible with the conventional railway network and all neighbouring countries. The Rapid Service thus represents a unified system including both new HSL constructions and modernized conventional lines as well as the expected rolling stock and operational concept.

This March, SŽDC carried out an analysis of options for accelerating preparation and construction of HSL. The analysis was prepared with the objective to identify sections of the anticipated HSL network in the Czech Republic which will become a part of the Rapid Service system and could be implemented as pilot ones. Three sections were selected: Praha-Běchovice – Poříčany (HSL POLABÍ), Přerov – Ostrava (HSL MORAVSKÁ BRÁNA – Moravian Gate) and Brno – Vranovice (HSL JIŽNÍ MORAVA – South Moravia).

All sections will constitute an important asset already for current trains being operated on heavily used lines in the direction of the new sections in consideration. The new high-speed infrastructure will increase railway capacity in the given direction which will improve transport reliability. At the same time, trains’ speed will increase if passing trains of different categories or artificially extending journey times due to a high use of railway lines can be eliminated.


To assure tasks resulting from the programme Government Regulation, i.e. incorporating the HSL routes into the regions’ ground plan documents and a shift in pre-planning, SŽDC proposed the following alternate procedure:

  • During autumn, it will ask as entitled investor for an update of ground development principles on the above-mentioned HSL sections in the regions concerned. Within this update, it will also ask for a delimitation of the draft corridor for placing transport infrastructure and a publicly beneficial construction on the site of current ground reserve for HSL.
  • As a base for a ground development principles’ update, SŽDC will use the HSL ground and technical studies elaborated up to now and other similar documents.
  • During next year, it will order an elaboration of Documentation for issuing a decision on construction placement pursuant to the Order No 499/2006 Coll., on construction documentation for the sections mentioned above.
  • It will also start the process of assessing environmental impacts of the intent 


The steps mentioned above required granting an exception from the binding procedure for preparing investments into the transport infrastructure which are contained in the Instruction of the Ministry of Transport No V-2/2012. Therefore, SŽDC could start with a gradual implementation of above-mentioned steps, which will result in accelerated preparation of HSL construction in the Czech Republic.

Files

Press release to download pdf