Let’s build an expressway to Liberec, asks Prague. The track should follow the D10 motorway
The Prague City Hall will join the initiative, which requires calling on the Czech state to build a high-speed railway line connecting Prague, Mladá Boleslav, Liberec and the German Görlitz. Prague councilors approved draft joint memoranda between regions and local governments in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. Representatives will still vote on it.
The memorandum proposes cooperation in the preparation of the line and in the effort to include it in the main trans-European transport network TEN-T.
The effort to promote the construction of a high-speed railway, which would copy the D10 motorway, arose mainly from the initiative of the Liberec Region, Saxony and the Polish Lower Silesian Voivodeship. According to them, it is essential that a railway connection be established between Prague, Liberec and the border between Germany and Poland, which will be faster than traveling by car on the motorway.
The leadership of the capital has now joined the initiative. According to a document approved today by Prague councilors, the Railway Administration (SŽ) is now preparing to build a modernized line in the Prague – Mladá Boleslav section using existing lines supplemented by two new junctions, which will shorten the journey to Mladá Boleslav by about 20 minutes and 47 minutes. “According to SŽ’s plan, this connection should become the starting platform for improving the connection with the Liberec region,” the document says.
According to the authors of the memorandum, however, this is an insufficient solution and the state should invest in the construction of a new and direct high-speed line to Liberec. “The cities of Brandýs nad Labem, Benátky nad Jizerou and Mnichovo Hradiště could also be successfully connected to this line, which would ensure fast regional transport from the entire region to Prague,” the document states.
In particular, the signatories are seeking to include the line in the European TEN-T network, as it is likely that only projects under it will be able to draw support from the European Structural Funds in the future. “Therefore, it will be necessary for the Czech Ministry of Transport to request the relevant European authorities to revise the TEN-T network in the Czech Republic with the surrounding environment,” the document states.
The memorandum was or is planned to be supported on the Czech side by the Liberec and Central Bohemian regions, Liberec, Jablonec nad Nisou and Mladá Boleslav, the German state by Saxony, the Görlitz district, the towns of Görlitz and Zittau and the ZVON transport association and the Polish Lower Silesian Voivodeship and the towns of Jelenia Góra and Zgorzelec. After being signed by all signatories, the joint application can be sent to the Czech Ministry of Transport.
According to a recent statement by its spokeswoman Radka Pistoriusová, SŽ is currently preparing four high-speed lines, from Prague via Brno to Ostrava, from Brno to Šakvice, as well as the Prague – Ústí nad Labem – Dresden line with the Bříza – Most and Prague – Hradec Králové – Vratislav branches.
Trains run at speeds of up to 320 every hour. The preparation of a system of high-speed connections, the key element of which is high-speed lines, approved by the government in May 2017. The route route has recently been criticized by Pilsen, through which high-speed railways should not run according to current government plans.