Rail transport on corridors will be faster by up to tens of minutes in the Czech Republic next year. Czech Railways (ČD) is counting on shorter journey times between Prague and southern Bohemia, and connections from the capital to Moravia should also gradually speed up.
At the same time, next year ČD will launch new lines to Vienna, Zurich, or Rostock. Other carriers will also speed up operations on the corridors. The new timetable will come into force on Sunday, December 11, 2022.
First, trains should speed up on the fourth corridor between Prague and České Budějovice. The journey times will be shortened mainly by completing two relocations on the line. EC or IC services should now cover the route in 100 minutes, which is 18 minutes faster than now.
Two pairs of new Silva Nortica fast trains from Prague to Vienna will also run on Corridor 4.
Half an hour earlier in Moravia
The carrier also expects a gradual acceleration on the corridor from Prague to Česká Třebová and then to Brno, where some closures should be terminated.
For example, some Pendolino connections between Prague and Ostrava should reduce their journey time by up to half an hour compared to the current time. The journey could therefore take just over three hours. Other connections on the line will also be speeded up by tens of minutes.
In recent months, construction work between Poříčany and Kolín, at the railway station in Pardubice, and between Chocní and Ústí nad Orlicí has complicated or further complicated transport from Prague via Pardubice to Moravia.
From July next year, international trains to Austria and Hungary between Prague and Brno will return to their original route via Pardubice. Until now, they have run via Vysočina. The connections on the route will be faster by about 25 minutes.
Rostock and Basel
In addition, the railways are planning several new routes abroad from the new timetable. New services will run to Zurich via Dresden and Leipzig, offering connections to southeast Germany and Basel in Switzerland.
The carrier will further expand the connection to Rostock in the Baltic Sea in the northbound direction. More trains will also run to Žilina, both from Prague and Ostrava.
According to ČD’s director, Michal Krapince, the new timetable aims to offer trains an ecological alternative to cars or buses.
Other carriers will also speed up transport on domestic corridors. In the new Leo Express timetable, the journey time of some of the carrier’s connections from Prague to Ostrava will be reduced by 16 minutes and to Košice by 37 minutes.
At the same time, Leo Express will renew two more pairs of trains, with the final station in Karviná and the stop in Ústí nad Orlicí will return to the timetable after two years.
For yellow RegioJet trains, the new timetable will bring a 13-minute increase in the speed of the connection between Ostrava and Prague from December.
In the summer, thanks to the end of the closure at Brandýs nad Orlicí, trains heading from Prague to Brno will once again run via Česká Třebová and the journey time from Brno to Prague will be reduced by 26 minutes to 2.5 hours.
Czech Railways plans to increase the fare with the new timetable but has not yet decided on the amount.
They have promised to announce the amount of the increase in the coming days. ČD has announced that the rise will essentially cover this year’s inflation, likely around 15 percent.