Czech officials have finalised a contract to begin prep work on a new railway from Prague Airport to Kladno.
SAGASTA, AFRY CZ, and AF-Instracture AB are part of a 27.3 million CZK contract with the state to draw up the blueprints and documentation for the railway. This process is planned to go on for 2 more years before construction begins in 2023 and finishes in 2028.
The route’s infrastructure will connect with the existing bus, tram, and train routes, and will provide parking spots for at least 2,000 cars along the way. It has eight different sections, one of them being the already finished Negrelli Viaduct which goes over the river between Florenc and Holešovice.
Správa železnic (The Railway Administration’s) main priority for the beginning of the project is connecting Vaclav Havel Airport with Ruzyně station and then continuing the flow of passengers into the Prague center.
The entire track is estimated to cost 40 billion CZK when all is said and done. Presumably, the construction plans rely on travel eventually being possible again, as the country’s travel and tourism industries have been decimated from the coronavirus restrictions, and current measures prevent people from even travelling outside of their province.
České dráhy, the country’s biggest railway operator, reported massive losses in 2020 and was forced to reduce wages and lay off employees.
Here’s hoping for a recovery one day.
