Trains run on the modernized Prague – Tábor line. However, even after decades of work, there are white spots on the map of the corridors
Modernized corridors, on the other hand, had to meet several key criteria: a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour using flexible rails and reinforced concrete thresholds, increasing track loads up to 22,5 tonnes per axle, extending overpass to 750 meters and achieving so-called spatial throughput ( sets the maximum dimensions of wagons or containers) of the highest category GC.
The electrification of sections not yet electrified was to be a matter of course. In the 1990s, this mainly concerned the line from Česká Třebová to Brno, or also from Pilsen to Česká Kubica and from Veselí nad Lužnicí to České Velenice, because these two lines were sought after branch branches III. and IV. corridor.
Later, some criteria were relaxed. Updates Principles of modernization of selected railway network of 1994 established two categories of reconstruction of main lines. More expensive modernization it was expected to increase speed to between 120 and 160 kilometers per hour, but cheaper optimalization, which went around without folding and left the track in its original track, assumed a speed of only 100 kilometers per hour. Some sources state that the modernization was to be carried out in flat terrain and optimization in more mountainous conditions, but in the end it was rather the opposite.
The idea of corridors was transferred from paper to the field in 1993, but at that time it was “grafted” to the reconstruction of the Úvaly – Poříčany line, which had already been prepared, which did not presuppose a drastic improvement in parameters. the acceleration was 140, but on most the route was more than 120 kilometers per hour. The first truly one hundred and sixty sections were to a large extent Hrobce – Hněvice and especially Poříčany – Kolín reconstructed in the second half of the 1990s.
The key was the government’s decision in 1994, which provided for financing with the use of money from the Phare program intended to support the candidate countries of the European Union (after accession to the EU, co-financing from European operational funds followed). In 1994, the government also approved state guarantees in the amount of 22 billion.
Work began on Corridor I in the mentioned year 1993, on the II. corridor four years later near Hodonín. Modernization III. corridor, or those parts thereof that are not parallel to I. or II. corridor, started only in 2006 between Pilsen and Silver, and on IV. corridor, work began a year earlier between Prague and Strančice.
Undoubtedly the most demanding corridor constructions were the modernization of the section between Česká Třebová and Zábřeh in Moravia, where the line was largely relocated. Modernization of the exit from Prague to the east, which includes the New Connection and also the adjoining part from Libno to Běchovice, which was newly triple-railed. And, of course, the transfer from Rokycany (respectively Ejpovice) to Pilsen, which also includes the longest railway tunnel in the Czech Republic. Significant corridor constructions can also be attributed, for example, to a series of tunnels between Benešov and Votice or the flyover over Dlouhá Třebová.