After ten years, Prague has a new tram line, the construction of another one will start in a week
After years, the tram line number 19 will return to Prague’s streets on Saturday. It will run to the Pankrác stop on a quarter-kilometer-long line, which was ceremoniously opened by the city on Friday. The line heralds the long-term closure of the metro station of the same name, which is being prepared in the coming years due to the construction of a new line D and a transfer station.
“We are opening a new tram line – it has not been in Prague for ten years. From the tram stop Pražského povstání, after almost fifty years, we will get along the tram tracks to the metro station Pankrác. We are correcting mistakes from the 1970s, when there were disturbing tram lines in Prague with the fact that it was not needed. Today we already know that this is of course not true, “says the mayor’s deputy for transport Adam Scheinherr (Prague himself).
He comes across the fact that trams used to run through these places, from Pankrác they continued to Kačerov or Ryšánka. However, due to the construction of the highway, the line was first relocated in 1970 and then abandoned four years later together with the opening of the first metro line. For the next decades, the disused rails served as a parking lot. It was not until last year that the town began with the reconstruction together with the reconstruction of the entire section from Nusle to Pankrác.
“Apart from the fact that we reconstructed almost 2.5 kilometers of tram lines in two stages, replaced almost 9.5 kilometers of rails and built new stops, after ten years we also built a new tram line in Prague and we will start on it on Saturday morning. regular operation on line 19, which we are renewing after nine years. I see this as a symbolic beginning of the period of renewed development of tram transport in Prague, “says Petr Witowski, CEO of the transport company.
The new line 19 will connect Lehovec, Palmovka, Žižkov, Strašnice, Vršovice, Nusle and Pankrác, ie parts of the city that do not yet have a direct connection. It will be exceptional in that only two-way low-floor trams will run on it – the new final in Pankrác does not have a classic loop. With the introduction of the new line, too change routes lines 5, 13, 16, 24 and bus 193.
Prague last extended the tram network in 2011 by a short section to Podbaba. But now he has big plans. In April this year, the construction of the new Zahradní Město loop near the emerging railway station began, in a week the company started the construction of the line from Sídliště Barrandov to Holyně, and this year it wants to dig between Modřany and Libuší for the first time. The track on Wenceslas Square, from Divoká Šárka to the Dědina housing estate or the new Dvorecký bridge over the Vltava is in the advanced stage of preparation.
Strategy for the development of tram lines in Prague until 2030 Photo: DPP