At the end of the last decade, European politicians began to discuss the way in which the change of time ended this year. However, they did not agree on whether it would be better to follow summer time all year round, which according to surveys is preferred by more people, or astronomical time, which is recommended by experts and is evidenced by the experience made by Russia. Due to the disagreement of politicians, the regular rotation continues.

The autumn change of time is the one that generally has smaller impacts. By returning to the natural counting of the time when the sun is in the headboard at noon, the night on Sunday is “extended” by an hour and, according to experts, the effect on health is not as great as in spring, when the hour is “lost”.

Trains stop for an hour, night trams and buses run more

Even the practical impact of the end of summer time is less than the effect of its beginning. Those who do not change their watch and have to go to work on Sunday are not in danger of coming later, or of having a train or bus in the morning. According to the new time, there will be morning connections, but also trains that run overnight with one excuse. This is the Prague-Brno train, which departs at midnight and arrives at its destination at 2:52. “This train will not wait anywhere for the passage of time on its route,” said Petr Pošta, a spokesman for Czech Railways.

Night trains – which, by the way, did not run in the Czech Republic during the last three time changes – stop for an hour at the station, where they arrive around two to three o’clock at night. In the Czech territory, this will affect four connections of Czech Railways and one RegioJet, as well as direct accommodation cars. RegioJet has announced that its international bus services will be waiting for an hour at night.

Regional trains will not be affected by the time change. According to the timetable, several night passenger trains should run around Prague on weekends between 2 pm and 3 pm, but they remain canceled with reference to covid-19.

However, in larger cities, where night public transport runs, time will affect its traffic. The Prague transport company prepares for night lines that run at regular intervals, usually two more connections. There will also be one extra night bus departure from Brno from the main railway station.

However, buses that run only once a night will run only once this time, but in individual cities it will be according to a different time. In Brno and its surroundings, they will still follow the old time, so for example, the bus at 2:13 from Kuřim to Brno will run at 2:13 summer time and no longer at 2:13 Central European Time. Also in Pilsen, the N12 connection will run at 2:10 from the Skyscraper only according to the ending of summer time. In Ostrava, on the other hand, the connection of line 11 will run at 2:13 from Plynáren to Zábřeh according to the new time.

Time is not a hot topic for politics now

In Central Europe, the Czech Republic and all neighboring countries and most other countries of the European Union will follow the last weekend of March. Then – again at 2 o’clock on Sunday – summer time starts to apply again.

Daylight saving time extends the time for which the light is afternoon or evening, but later on. The original argument for its introduction was related to alleged energy savings. It was first introduced in the Czech lands during the First World War, then during the Second World War. It was permanently used in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s during the energy crisis. Until 1995, summer time was introduced for six months at a time. It takes a month longer from the following year, which corresponds to the European Union standard.

In the EU, a debate has begun in the last decade about the end of regular time changes. A survey conducted by STEM / MARK in 2018 found that 84 percent of people wanted it. The European Commission has even prepared a directive which provided for the end of the annual shifts, and it has been approved by the European Parliament on the assumption that this year’s rotation will be 2021.

However, the Union assumed that the Member States would agree on which way to go next, which failed. In addition, the summer discussion has had to give way to other issues recently.

There are states that have backed down from changing time in recent years. An example is Russia, which gradually tried both variants. At first, in 2011 it remained at summer time. However, because it turned out that some people are having great difficulty with the dark winter morning, the time changed once again in the autumn of 2014, and since then Russia has been guided by the time or times that are natural for its individual zones.

In September this year, the Czech government approved a schedule for time changes for the next five years, so it is expected that nothing will change by October 25, 2026 at the latest.