Prague has not seen such a large investment for decades. We will get to the airport by train in six years
photo: Petr Kouba, PrahaIN.cz/Minister of Transport Martin Kupka (ODS) started the modernization of the dilapidated old building of the Buben railway station.
A metropolis cannot do without a railway. And not in the future either. Everyone who gathered today for the launch of the modernization of the track section between Prague’s Bubny station and the future new Praha-Výstaviště station is aware of this. This section will become an essential part of the future connection of the capital with Václav Havel Prague Airport and Kladno.
The rebuilding of the line, the construction of new stops and the total closure of the unused space in Holešovice, including the magnificent Vltava Philharmonic, is the largest investment construction in the city in this decade and can only be rivaled by the construction of the fourth line of the Prague metro.
What is all done?
So far, only the necessary repair of the Negrelli viaduct has been completed out of the entire expensive project. Currently, the reconstruction of Prague’s oldest railway station – Masarykova – is being planned. Here, in connection with the large-scale construction of lucrative office and commercial buildings, Masaryk Station will be partially roofed and the current platforms will be completely changed. This part of the project should be completed in 2026.
The current desperate state of the Bubna station building. photo: Petr Kouba, PrahaIN.cz
Today, the modernization of the Bubny-Výstaviště section was ceremoniously launched with a tap on the railway. PrahaIN.cz was there.
This section will take three years to build, despite the fact that it is only a distance of 1,300 meters.
What will change?
First of all, the Praha-Bubny station will be moved. It will move approximately 300 meters south. All the way above the Vltavská metro station itself. There will be a modern lighted four-track station that will correspond with the future building of the Vltava Philharmonic. “Furthermore, we will see the value of the current railway body excavated. This will create a pedestrian connection between the lower and upper Holešovice, which is noticeably lacking in the entire area today. In addition, a tram underpass will be created, which will speed up and improve the transport connection between the two parts of the city,” said Adam Scheinherr, Prague’s deputy mayor for transport (Prague itself), at the construction opening ceremony.
The track itself will be raised on pylons, creating a new railway overpass. This removed one of the pain points of current traffic, namely the crossing at Bubenská street. In the future, it will lose its meaning and be removed. A railway line will run several meters above the ground around the location of Little Berlin, and a new railway station, Výstaviště, will be built in the place of today’s tram loop near Výstaviště. It will also be located a few meters above the ground and will match the design of the other buildings on the new line.
Find ten differences, or Visualization of the future form of the Bubna railway station. photo: Petr Kouba, PrahaIN.cz
Immediately after the completion of the construction of this section in 2025, the construction of the subsequent section between the Exhibition Center and Praha-Dejvice station will begin. A large part of this section will be hidden in a tunnel underground. On the surface, instead of today’s track, a cycle path and a rest park zone will be created. The current station in Dejvice will be hidden entirely underground in the future.
A railway line will be built at Václav Havel Airport in 2029. Minister of Transport Martin Kupka (ODS) promised this today at the construction opening ceremony. “The construction of the entire link between Prague and Kladno will cost three billion crowns, of which more than 2.5 billion will be added from the funds of the European Union,” Kupka said, promising that: “In exactly ten years we can send a special train from the airport, and that way, everyone here today can go to the Vltava Philharmonic for a concert. I’m looking forward to it.” Kupka was applauded for this bold vision.
The site will remain a memorial to ruined Jewish lives
The mayor of the seventh district, Jan Čižinský, also deserved this, who noted that he was looking forward to the pedestrian connection between the two parts of Holešovice. He didn’t disappoint today either, and as part of his sporting reputation, he came to the construction opening ceremony on a bicycle.
However, the current Bubny station also has a historical legacy. The local railway station was the place from where Czech Jews were sent to concentration camps as part of the Holocaust. That is why the Museum of Silence, which commemorates the genocide, was built here. Even the future location will not lose its commemorative character, which was reminded by the director of the monument, Pavel Štingl: “A hundred-ton stone object, which was quarried on the occasion of the centenary of the state, will be installed here. It will be decorated with Hebrew and Czech writing and will become a memento of a sad time.”
The planned development of this part of Prague is one of the largest projects in its history. In the last hundred years, its size is perhaps comparable only to the rehabilitation of the Jewish Town shortly after the creation of the independent Czechoslovak state and to the construction of the South Town housing estates during the socialist era.