[Czech Republic] Railways

[kokpit]

^ ty fotky nejsou moje

[Norkey]

na tom nesejde.. jinak dneska jsem byl i na namesti republiky, a je to tam trochu dusty tak jsem radsi rychle pokracoval dal.. bez investigativni fotonovinariny..

[kokpit]

to je škoda, za chvíli to budou otvírat. Snad se tam do té doby dostanu...

[kokpit]

New Connection project in Prague June update
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[kokpit]

New connection tunnels seen from Petřínská observation tower

and few more photos taken from the opposite, eastern side

Petřínská observation tower is on the hill in the background

Eastern portals and Sluncová flyover bridge u/c

[kokpit]

New connection, my beloved infrastructure project in Prague
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[historyworks]

Maybe the answer is in this thread and I haven't read it properly but what is the purpose of this new very expensive looking connection kokpit? There are already two other lines under/beside Žižkov (any more and your Czech national monument will fall into a hole!). Is it because more tracks are needed or does it lead to some destination?

[historyworks]

Sorry I should have read the first post in this thread - teach me not to read threads backwards!

So are there any plans for the railway to Česky Raj - Prague to Turnov, Liberec? This is still very slow. I notice CD uses mainly buses for main connection (because the motorway is faster) and trains only for branches. I guess they are concentrating on international lines first, being the most important.

Then perhaps will come work on the railway stations themselves. It is funny going through some stations and the staff are always beautifully dressed, with flowers on the station etc but the buildings look as though they haven't had any maintenance since the 14th century! (A bit like your New Wave film "Closely observed trains"!)

[kokpit]

Prague - Liberec is not main railway track so the reconstruction will be slower for that reason.
Article about the track is here (only in Czech...)
http://www.cd.cz/index.php?action=article&id=19616
funny things from the article:
"the newest" section on the route was built in 1872...
Bus Prague-Liberec via Expressway ... 96km, 72 min
Train Prague-Turnov-Liberec ...140 km, 2hrs 35 min
so the plan is to build new track, Prague-Liberec should last 80-90 min then
construction will start not earlier than in 2010...

[historyworks]

How far from Prague are the cityElefants used? Are they long-distance commuter trains (what we call inter-urbans) or are they also used more distantly to other cities? What is the maximum distance people will commute to Prague? (Here it is about 80km but we are used to distances of course!) Are there other types of commuter trains - I presume some diesel railcars on non-electrified lines (like Prokop valley).

And how is maintenance work done on railway tracks there without interrupting services? Here they often close lines on weekends for maintenance and use buses, but I haven't noticed this so much in Europe.

Not too many questions I hope my friends!

[kokpit]

Originally Posted by historyworks

How far from Prague are the cityElefants used? Are they long-distance commuter trains (what we call inter-urbans) or are they also used more distantly to other cities? What is the maximum distance people will commute to Prague? (Here it is about 80km but we are used to distances of course!) Are there other types of commuter trains - I presume some diesel railcars on non-electrified lines (like Prokop valley).

And how is maintenance work done on railway tracks there without interrupting services? Here they often close lines on weekends for maintenance and use buses, but I haven't noticed this so much in Europe.

Not too many questions I hope my friends!

They are used as commuter trains for bigger cities (Prague, Brno, Ostrava). Maximum distance people are commuting is hard to determine, but I think it could be 80km as well. For example one friend of mine live in Tanvald (near Liberec) and goes to Prague every day (by car), it's about 80-90km (for me this is nothing but wasting of valuable time and fuel!).
There are many non-electric trains in Czechia, we have about 3000 km of electrified railway lines and 6500 km of non-electrified.
Maitenance of single-track railway line is always more difficult than double or triple or more track, that's obvious. From time to time there is closure of traffic and buses are being used instead.

Bit OT, I've probably asked for that already (sorry for my forgetfulness ), but what is the reason you are interested in Czechia?

[historyworks]

Thanks kokpit.
I am married to a Czech, which is very lucky for me. We still have family over there. My wife's father was a designer of Line A of the Prague Metro so we used to talk a lot about all this and I met his colleagues in Prague. You have an amazing country and very clever people, I think we can learn a lot from you. Also next time I would like to see Slovakia, Hungary, Poland because there are many interesting things there I read about on this forum.

Also do you know your cityElefant is descended from a design first evolved I believe in Sydney? Here we have had these beautiful inter-urban double-deckers since 1970:



http://www.cityrail.info/aboutus/trains/v_control.jsp
http://www.cityrail.info/aboutus/trains/v_trailer.jsp

I believe these all-doubledeck electric multiple units were an Australian first. Others in Europe and America before that had a locomotive at one end. I stand to be corrected though. We had a great rolling stock industry for over 100 years but now multinationals have swallowed it and more is coming from overseas. Disgraceful! Skoda Transportation is trying to get into our market but hasn't succeeded yet.

[kokpit]

^ thank's for explanation of you interest and sorry for my forgetfulness, I have a mind like a sieve sometimes...

I've always admired Australia because of great mix of modern civilization, big cities and splendid nature. And of course we all envy you so much space you have over there. I still remember series for kids called Skippy (about the kangaroo) I had watched being kid during commie era (one of only few series from the West world at that time broadcasting here...), thanks to this Australia became very popular here in former communist Czechoslovakia, we learned about new cute animals like koala and so on...

Those Australian doubledeckers are classic, I believe I saw them in many films.
We had (not full) doubledeckers before 471 too, they were not very successful (unreliable) but few of them are still in operation I think, they were build at the end of 80's


I quite like these, their design is pretty old (first prototype in 1957...) but they are nice and few of them still in operation
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[historyworks]

Originally Posted by kokpit

Those Australian doubledeckers are classic, I believe I saw them in many films.
We had (not full) doubledeckers before 471 too, they were not very successful (unreliable) but few of them are still in operation I think, they were build at the end of 80's

This example (above) I suspect shows why full double deckers took longer to come in Europe. You see here we have DC (1500v) electricity supply on the railway (from 1920s), so not much space is needed on board for power equipment since the motors (on the bogies) are also DC. Over there you have AC current and the train had to have space for equipment to convert to DC. Now I believe the drive is AC direct so there is now space for a full double deck configuration. It is a long time since I read all this so my details may be wrong, but I think this is roughly the reason.

(PS as a counterbalance to your "Skippy" experience our kids have a great supply of Czech videos and spend hours watching Krtek, Broucci, Staflik a spagetka etc. No matter that its not in English, much better than that violent American rubbish! )

[rejow]

Brand new switch layed on the east end of the station Poříčany. At this place track splits from two rails to three.
This is propably fastest turnout in eastern europe. Construction speed in straight direction is 300km/h, into deviation 130km/h. Unfortunately now is used only for 160/130kmph.
Producer is DT Prostějov
basic shape: 1:26,5 – 2500

[rejow]

Modernization of the fourth koridor Praha - České Budějovice.

Now this line has top speed between 80 and 100, two track part ends in Benešov (50 km from Prague). Rest is only single track.
Next picture show how will change speeds.
Blue variant has been choosen.


Next three pix says how it will be modernized. it show section Benešov - České Budějovice
Red = new track
Blue = old track which remains
Yelow = abadoned track
Green = variant, but red won
Dashed lines = tunnels




so we will have close to 10km of new railway tunnels


And now few pictures from current construction works progres:

Praha - Benešov:










Tábor - Veselí nad Lužnicí

[kokpit]

Wouldn't be better to build brand new track than these patches that will increase speed only very little? BTW thanks for photos rejow

[kokpit]

nice photo taken on 3.corridor near Pilsen

[kokpit]

Masaryk railway station in Prague is undergoing general reconstruction
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[kokpit]

Railway flyover bridge "Masarykovo", part of New connection project in Prague
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