The Ministry of Transport has announced a competition for express trains in Prague – Brno, for the first time it wants new trains from the carrier
The plan envisages a two-hour regular cycle from Prague to Jihlava. The winner of the competition will use a contract for 15 years.
For the first time, the state is looking for a carrier in an open competition that ensures the operation of long-distance trains in the commitment of new trains. The Ministry of Transport has announced a tender for the operation of the R9 Prague – Havlíčkův Brod – Brno express lines with an estimated value of over six billion crowns. The contract will be for 15 years.
The contract documentation is published at profile of the contracting authority. This is the historically first competition of the Ministry of Transport, in which it demands new sets. Carriers have time to submit bids by April next year and, for the first time in ministerial competitions, they will have enough time to secure vehicles: the start under the new contract is from 2025.
Operation on the R9 line has long been provided by Czech Railways, with the best deployed cars being one of the worst in the entire network. However, since this year’s change of the timetable, thanks to the purchase of new vehicles, it has stopped using better vehicles than before.
The ministry will require new vehicles at speeds of every 200 km / h. The reason for such speed is the prepared plan on the high-speed line Elbe, on which these sets could also run in the section from Prague to Kolín. The requirement is return sets, which will not be necessary to bypass at the hub stations in Prague and Brno. Each set will consist of a core section with a minimum capacity of 200 seats and a booster model that is specifically prescribed for different trains and days of the week with a size of 100 to 300 seats for passengers. At least one door must have the possibility of low-floor boarding, the condition will also be an Internet connection on the train or vending machines. The carrier will need a total of ten sets for operation.
Two-hour bar, guide as a duty
The operational concept assumes that every 120 minutes there is a direct train Prague – Havlíčkův Brod – Brno and every 120 minutes a direct train Prague – Havlíčkův Brod – Jihlava. “The team will arrive at a significant improvement in connections to Jihlava. At the same time, the offer of the R9 line will be regularized and its connection to the transport concept of the Vysočina region, with which the train management was discussed,“Ministry spokesman František Jemelka said. The contract with the carrier is more or less in the net mode, where revenues are a risk of transport.
However, it also contains, after the experience from the pandemic of coronavirus instruments, which solves the necessary fundamental outages in the number of passengers not caused by the carrier.
On the R9 line, the carrier will have to recognize the Single Tariff System, international travel documents according to the TCV tariff and travel documents of territorially relevant regional integrated transport systems, which the R9 line passes on its route several times. There must be a guide on the trains.
So far, the ministry has made two attempts at open competition: one was canceled by Minister Zdeněk Žák, the other by the Office for the Protection of Competition. Other selections of the carrier took place through so-called shootings.
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