Prague's metro is a triangle: three lines, three interchanges

The Prague metro is easy to learn because it was designed as three straight lines that meet in a triangle. Three colours, three letters, three interchanges. Once you know where the triangle is, you can read the whole map, plan a journey in your head and improvise when a section is closed.

It is also a rare piece of urban infrastructure whose logic is visible from the outside. The pattern that makes the metro simple to use is the same pattern that explains how the city's centre is organised, and the story of how it was built explains why some outer areas have a station within walking distance and others have none.

The lines

Line A (green) runs roughly east to west, from Nemocnice Motol in the west to Depo Hostivař in the east. It passes Malostranská, Staroměstská, Můstek, Muzeum and Náměstí Míru, so it serves the area below the Castle, the Old Town and Vinohrady.

Line B (yellow) also runs east to west, but further north through the centre, from Zličín in the west to Černý Most in the east. Among its stops are Anděl, Národní třída, Můstek, Náměstí Republiky, Florenc and Křižíkova.

Line C (red) runs north to south, from Letňany in the north to Háje in the south, via Nádraží Holešovice, Florenc, Hlavní nádraží, Muzeum, I. P. Pavlova and Pankrác.

Station names change and sections close for works, so check the DPP and PID maps (as of 2026; check the official source).

Where they cross

The three interchange stations form the triangle. Můstek joins A and B, beside Wenceslas Square and the Old Town. Muzeum joins A and C, at the top of Wenceslas Square. Florenc joins B and C, near the central bus station.

Every pair of lines meets at one station, so you can get from any station to any other with at most one change. That tidy geometry is the network's main virtue. It also means the journey planner rarely needs to be clever: pick the interchange that joins your line to your destination's line, and you are done.

A short history

The first section opened in 1974, on what is now line C. Line A followed in 1978 and line B in 1985. After that the lines grew in sections, outwards to the housing estates and later westwards. DPP's historical material has the extension dates.

Year each Prague metro line first opened

Some stations, especially under the hills and the river, are deep, and Prague escalators can seem to go on for a long time. That is the price of tunnelling beneath a historic city, and a reminder that the system was built to serve the housing estates beyond the old core as much as the centre itself.

Hours and frequency

The metro runs daily from early morning until around midnight, with frequent trains by day and fewer in the evening and early morning. After it stops, night trams and buses take over, as the night transport article explains. For exact hours and intervals use the PID timetables (as of 2026; check the official source).

Fares and access

A PID ticket valid in the relevant zone covers the metro, and paper tickets must be validated at the entrance. Many stations have lifts for step-free access, but not all, and DPP publishes an accessibility overview. If you travel with a pushchair or a wheelchair, check the station on the accessibility overview before you set out, not at the platform.

Reading the map

Each line has a colour and a letter. Trains show their final station as the destination, so the direction you want is the name of the end station. Locals talk this way too: "towards Háje" means south on C. Platform signs show the next trains and the stations served.

The planned line D

A fourth line, D, has been planned for years. In outline it would run from the centre towards the south of the city, to districts with no metro today. It is a major infrastructure project, prepared by the city and DPP and funded by the city and the state. This article gives no dates. They have shifted before, and the ones to trust are those published by DPP and Prague City Hall.

Why it matters

The metro carries a large share of public transport trips, so its capacity and reliability shape travel across the city. Where new stations go influences where people want to live, and the city's strategic plan from the Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR Praha) discusses how the system should grow.

For a resident, the closest thing to a rule of thumb is that the metro is the fast spine and the trams and buses are the ribs. A flat close to a station is a flat close to the whole network. A flat a few stops from a station on a good tram line is almost as well placed. The test is not the distance to a station but the time it takes to reach the places you go to most.

When something goes wrong

If one section is closed for works or a fault, the network usually offers a way round via another interchange, and the operator's notices will say where. A resident who knows the three interchanges can improvise, where a first-time visitor tends to wait for the next train that is not coming.

The practical habit is to look at the notices at the station entrance before descending. Replacement buses run on closed sections, and the notice says where they stop. It saves the long escalator ride to a platform where nothing is moving.

Which line for which part of town

A rough mental map helps more than a station list. Line A is the line for the Castle side, the Old Town and Vinohrady. Line B is the line for the western and eastern suburbs by way of Anděl and Národní třída, and it passes the Old Town's edge at Náměstí Republiky. Line C is the north-south spine, linking Holešovice, the main railway station, the area around the museum and the southern districts. If a place is described to you by its station, the line letter tells you the corridor, and the interchange tells you how to switch. This is the way Praguers give directions, and after a week of use you will find yourself doing the same.

Stations as landmarks

Metro station names double as district names in everyday speech. People say they live "at Anděl" or "near Pankrác", and offices and shops use the nearest station as an address. For the newcomer this means the metro map is also a street map of the places that matter. It also means a flat advertised as "five minutes from the metro" is worth checking against which station is meant, because five minutes from a quiet end station is a very different proposition from five minutes from an interchange.

What the map does not show

The diagram is topological. It shows order and connection, not distance or direction, so two stations that look close on the map can be a long way apart on foot and the other way round. Use the map for riding and a street map for walking. The same applies to the long escalators: a station that looks one stop from another can be a significant climb from street level, and the difference between stations matters when you carry shopping or a pushchair.

A first step

Download the PID or DPP metro map and mark the three interchange stations. Then plan one journey you make often, noting which interchange you would use and which way you would ride.