The south of Prague lacks connectivity between the two banks of the Vltava. As we see below, south of the Dancing House (Tančící Dům), we see only two road bridges - that's it until you reach the ring road.
So why will the new Dvorecký Most, opening in March 2026 - close to Žluté Lázně on the map above - be for trams, buses, cycles and pedestrians only? It's easy to dismiss as anti-car politics, but there is far more to it than that. Barrandov Bridge, to the south, carries little traffic between the suburbs on the two banks of the Vltava - it's a major arterial road carrying traffic from eastern and south-eastern Prague to the ring road. For someone who wants to go by car between the suburbs of Zlíchov and Podolí at the two ends of the new bridge, it's about a 2km detour via the Barrandov Bridge. However, the buses between the two destinations act as slow traffic on the Barrandov Bridge, so the buses being moved should cause some traffic relief there. 24 buses an hour planned to be rerouted to Dvorecky Most cross the Barrandov Bridge in either direction at peak hour, so this is not insignificant. Also, the 118 bus, running through Dvorce to Smíchov Station, will have a five minute estimated time saving crossing the new bridge.
There is a ferry running 100 metres or so from the new bridge. The ferry will close when the bridge opens. It is never very busy, despite running every 15 minutes. The picture below shows the ferry running with a single passenger at 1845 on a Monday.
Instinct says that the numbers will increase when the bridge opens, partly because it isn't pleasant crossing the busy and noisy Barrandov Bridge on foot or by bike. The photo shows one of the buses which will move to the new bridge.
However, the real reason that the bridge will make a difference is the change to tram and bus journeys. A map, courtesy Pražská integrovaná doprava, shows the trams and buses planned to cross the bridge when it opens.
At the moment, the two tram lines close to the river have no services starting on one side of the river and finishing on the other.
The new bridge will create cross-river north-south tram services, which are currently lacking. While you could achieve this using Palackého Most further north, it's already a bottleneck. Also, you see no benefit from the reduction of bus traffic on Barrandov Bridge without the new bridge.
Also, there is one benefit few would think of. On a recent weekend, the tram line to the east of the Vltava had to be closed due to maintenance on a cliff. Only about 50m of track was unsafe to use, but passengers were consigned to replacement bus services. Whether this was due to a shortage of trams or of drivers isn't known, but the result was that a lot of people didn't travel. With the new bridge, the trams could serve all but three scheduled stops by crossing the river twice.
