The lock on the České Budějovice – Praha route ends. The Southern Express will go directly
Locomotive 380.012 at the head of the South Express of the Czech Railways between Prague and České Budějovice
| photo: Jakub Vrána, iDNES.cz
“However, the Southern Express will run the entire summer holidays according to the exclusion regulations and will leave Prague 15 minutes earlier than usual,” said Petr Šťáhlavský, a spokesman for Czech Railways.
The first long-distance connection from Prague to Budějovice will be the EC 331 train, departing from the main railway station at 5:49. Due to the ongoing work on the corridor between Votice and Sudoměřice near Tábor, buses will also run for regional connections in the Benešov – Tábor section in July.
The new railway between Votice and Sudomeřice Tábor, which is almost twenty kilometers long, should be completely hot and in operation from September. It includes, for example, two larger tunnels Mezno 840 meters and Deboreč 660 meters. The number of railway bridges, culverts and underpasses is 48 and, for example, the length of noise walls is 2,205 meters.
When completed, the trains will largely stop running on the current track, the new tracks will shorten the Sudoměřice – Votice route by two kilometers, which will mean further acceleration on the Budějovice – Prague corridor.
This year, the 8.4 km long part of Soběslav – Doubí in the Tábor region is to be completed on this route.
In the distance, the last old section of the corridor in the České Budějovice region from Ševětín to Nemanice is still crucial, as is the estimated 20 billion crowns. It will also include the Chotýčanský tunnel with a length of almost five kilometers and the Hosínský tunnel over three kilometers long. The preparatory phase of this construction is due to end next year.