One small step towards Prague Airport

This weekend, a section of the railway from the centre of Prague to the railway station opened. Like Dublin, Prague doesn't have a direct airport link by rail from the city centre. It's a bit of an embarrassment, but I can get there from central Prague using my transport pass in less than an hour with one change from tram to trolleybus.

The plans are grandiose - by 2030, the train from the centre of town to the airport will take 25 minutes, (add five minutes for me to walk to the station) and run every ten minutes. The line largely follows what was a single track line from Masaryk Station to the Central Bohemian town of Kladno to the west of Prague and the airport.

Let's look at what's just been delivered, my challenges with the delivery and what is ongoing.

What's just been delivered

The section which has just been delivered is this one. Basically, a kilometre and a half of railway, almost entirely on stilts, with a station at each end (Bubny and Výstaviště). The immediate transport benefits:

• Bubny replaces an old station, but is about 400m further south. The placement puts it next to Vltavska Metro 'C' station. This means that the line from Kladno now has connectivity to all three Prague Metro lines.
  
  
• Výstaviště (Exhibition Centre) is a destination in itself, but it is also a significant transport hub. The existence of the station allows for a number of destinations by tram to be added with a single change.

I've visited both Bubny and Výstaviště over the past couple of days since the opening. For a start, here's Bubny from the path to Vltavska, taken the day before trains turned up.

I've seen the station described as brutalist, but that's unfair - the picture below shows a very pleasant environment. The platforms at Bubny are about 200m long. There are four platforms: in essence, two for the route north to Kralupy nad Vltavou, two for the route west to Kladno and the airport.

But the trains aren't 200m long: here's a train heading north towards Kralupy.

Here's the departure board at rush hour at Bubny - you could say it's 'future-proofed'. 

Moving to Výstaviště, the 200m platforms seem to go on forever:

Here's a train in the platform - a quarter of the capacity being used maybe:

It's just gone rush hour, and there are three departures in the hour:

My challenges

Lots of stages not yet in construction

If you look at the project site here, five sections which are not yet in construction have to be completed to reach the airport from the city. Of these, only the airport station and the next tunnelled section from Výstaviště to Dejvice are expected to have planning permission by the end of the year. Of the other three, Dejvice to Veleslavín is particularly challenging due to the expensive land under which the railway administration want to tunnel, and the depth of the tunnel. All of the five sections have a construction date of '2027-2030'. So the chances of achieving the ambitious plans on time are small. 

No visual answer to the question "what's next?"

I would have made sure that the next section from Výstaviště to Dejvice had shovels in the ground now, even at the cost of not starting Masaryk Station until now (see 'What is ongoing'). But to do so admits the phased delivery of the project, and the risk of the project being perceived to be a white elephant. I would be looking at transport benefits for each stage of the project going forward, rather than stressing the undoubted community benefits (easier access between the two sides of the railway at Bubny, for instance). 

Express trains bypass Výstaviště 

Let's look first at that awful post-rush hour departure board at Výstaviště. What is doesn't tell you is that an hourly 'express' train to Kladno bypasses the stop. I'm going to be kind and assume this is either down to 'trial operations' or an acknowledgement that half of the trams at Výstaviště are currently not running due to one of the routes being completely rebuilt. But if you are going to make the statement 'the new Praha-Výstaviště stop has also significantly improved the transport services of the entire area', then you should make sure your few trains per hour all stop there.

Could you run four trains an hour to Dejvice now?

It would be a much faster route than the tram this way, but there are a few challenges. 

• You would need a passing loop somewhere on the single track section between Výstaviště and Dejvice. Behind Sparta would be the obvious place.
• Nimbys moaning about level crossings being down. Prague is a public transport city. Get used to it. In any case, once the link to Dejvice is in place underground, the level crossings will close for ever.
• People will say, undoubtedly, that Masaryk Station can't cope with extra capacity while it's being rebuilt. But Bubny can...  

It's a long way to change at the old Dejvice station for Metro 'A', and, potentially in time, for the new underground Dejvice station

So maybe create a temporary station by Metro 'A'? Here's the site from Google Maps:

The walk is about 400m, as you have to go via a level crossing to the east. Two platforms could be built to the east of the pin with access from the said level crossing. Immediate benefit for the cost of two temporary platforms and some wasteland.

Focus on reaching Velaslavín from the airport

Once a delay is inevitable, the railway administration should focus on bringing the train from the airport to Veloslavín. That way passengers don't need to take the trolleybus, as they do now - train to Veloslavín then Metro 'A' to the centre saves about 10 minutes over trolleybus to Veloslavín then Metro 'A'.

Manage the comms better

Much of the discussion on social media over the launch weekend was over headlines saying things like 'Prague opens first railway station in 40 years'. By the time I saw the railway administration's release on YouTube, it said 'major station'. A number of small stations have opened in the last few years, and the confusion may come from 'nádraží' meaning large station and 'železniční stanice' meaning stop - but that kind of language isn't going to translate far outside of Czech, and focuses debate in completely the wrong place.  

What is ongoing

I'll deregard the work ongoing (and close to complete) close to Kladno as it doesn't impact on the route to the airport. Mysteriously, the railway administration's page regarding Bubny and Výstaviště doesn't say that the section is complete, but that trial operation has started and that completion is in 2026. I can see work continuing to tidy up Bubny station and to complete a northern entrance there, but what 'completion' actually means is unclear. The comms could be better.

But I digress. The main piece of ongoing work is the rebuilding of the platforms at Masaryk station, and providing extra capacity. The page to read is at https://zeleznicenaletiste.cz/modernizace-a-dostavba-masarykova-nadrazi . The construction video shows no roof - the roof is now close to half complete, as partially seen in the photo below:

It's everything about exciting architecture from the outside in the way Bubny isn't. You don't see the platforms which haven't been demolished and rebuilt here, but the whole place was dilapidated before the rebuild started. Here's what the old part of the station looks like today - it's had very little love in the last 50 years:

While completion of the station in 2027 will look fantastic, the only immediate transport benefit will be the quicker walk to the main station due to the exit at the eastern end. Having something so visible of the intent to build to the airport in central Prague isn't a bad idea, but I would have delayed this section, and spent the money on getting to Veloslavín from the airport.

Conclusion

Am I pleased to see the section complete? You bet. Do I think the project is likely to go badly wrong soon? You bet.