[Ostrava] Transportation

[geogregor]

Hi!!
I'm looking for infos about infrastructure projects in Ostrava and around.
Tram lines upgrade and renovation, railway line and stations upgrade. New trams, trolleybuses and buses deliveries, road reconstruction projects etc.
I know that you have some Solaris buses and trolleybuses. Is there more going to be delivered?
How about new trams? Are you going to have just Czech models or is there something else coming?

[Wizzard]

Train station Ostrava-Svinov

[X236K]

Ashamed to say but I don't know much about public transport in my homecity... Ostrava is quite large considering number of citizens and unfortunately there are in fact 3 city centers - Moravska Ostrava, Poruba, Ostrava-Jih, which are separated by wide industrial area and river. This is making the public transport annoying and slow.

I took a bus twice last year when my car was "sick". Vehicles are OK but the price is not competitive.

This map is showing the development that I'm most interested in:
- Rudna extension (blue line leftmost), connecting current stretches of the road 11. Ground work is ongoing.
- D1 highway (heading to south) which is scheduled to open this year
- R56 extension (connecting to D1 - top blue line), which is divided into 2 stages, 1st is to be started this year
- "Severni spoj" between Poruba-D1-Marianske hory. Part is U/C right now but I don't know the complete status

[x-type]

omg omg, why is this glass-metal thing built in front of this beatifull building?!?!

[Wizzard]

I noticed the same, but still it is better than the "modern" station building in Bratislava in front of the old one. But our station will be reconstructed completely. And also, this one in Ostrava does not look so bad.

[X236K]

Originally Posted by x-type

omg omg, why is this glass-metal thing built in front of this beatifull building?!?!

It's not so bad... the old building is listed and cannot be modified, but they had to extend it because of railway reconstruction. So this is the result...

[geogregor]

I like this glass extension.

Thanks for news about road projects.

How about tram lines? Do they buy more modern trams?
I was watching pictures of Ostrava on different websites, I also watched some movies on YouTube and most vehicles look kind of old.
How about tracks itself? Many Polish cities modernizing them for EU money.

Anyway I'm going to see it myself. I'm visiting hometown in March so I'm going to pop in to Ostrava.

But any news about infrastructure are welcome.

And final question is why so few people write about Ostrava? Cities of similar size in Poland or Slovakia (Bratislava) have dozen of threads with many forumers. Are citizens of Ostrava not interested about development?

I hope to read more often about neighbouring metropolis

[X236K]

As far as I know the public fleet in Ostrava is quite new comparing to Brno's or Prague's, most of vehicles are already modernized.

Some of the trams (Inekon...?) are even made in Ostrava:




Some sites here (Czech only, but there are images):

http://www.dpo.cz/vozy/tramvaje.htm
http://www.dpo.cz/vozy/autobusy.htm
http://www.dpo.cz/vozy/trolejbusy.htm

[geogregor]

I was on DPO website.
There are information about current flet of buses, trams, and trolleys.
From what I remember most of buses are not low floor. Also number of new trams is not wery high.
I couldn't find any information about new fleet coming soon. Are there any buys in progress?
There are also no info about track renowation.
Is DPO responsible for tracks and vehicles or just for fleet? In some polish cities tracks are maintained by road department in city hall while buses and trams are run by separate organizations.
How does it work in Ostrava? And where I can find more infos about current constructions and coming public transport projects?

One more qustion.
If I take train from Cesky Tesin where shoud I get off? Should I go all the way to main railway station or should I get off somwhere on a way, like Vitkovice, Svinov or somwhere else? And if I get off on main railway station how long does it take to walk to center?

[X236K]

Originally Posted by geogregor

I was on DPO website.
There are information about current flet of buses, trams, and trolleys.
From what I remember most of buses are not low floor. Also number of new trams is not wery high.
I couldn't find any information about new fleet coming soon. Are there any buys in progress?
There are also no info about track renowation.
Is DPO responsible for tracks and vehicles or just for fleet? In some polish cities tracks are maintained by road department in city hall while buses and trams are run by separate organizations.
How does it work in Ostrava? And where I can find more infos about current constructions and coming public transport projects?

One more qustion.
If I take train from Cesky Tesin where shoud I get off? Should I go all the way to main railway station or should I get off somwhere on a way, like Vitkovice, Svinov or somwhere else? And if I get off on main railway station how long does it take to walk to center?

As I know only some of vehicles are low-floor since they're quite expensive to purchase but there is enough of them to cover the network. I can see low-floors often - trams, buses, trolleys. However DPO prefers to refurbish old vehicles because of cost savings. Try to google for more info.

I have never traveled by train from Tesin... generaly there are 4 main stations in Ostrava - Svinov, Main station, Vitkovice and Stred. Most people prefer to use Svinov when traveling to Prague, because it have been rebuilt recently and is easy to access for domestics. Main station is quite close to the city center but is old and ugly. Vitkovice is suitable for those living on the south but only few trains is heading there (but you may go through when going from Tesin). Stred is a small station in the city center... fine when traveling to the mountains.

[geogregor]

Originally Posted by X236K

As I know only some of vehicles are low-floor since they're quite expensive to purchase but there is enough of them to cover the network. I can see low-floors often - trams, buses, trolleys. However DPO prefers to refurbish old vehicles because of cost savings. Try to google for more info.

Hmmm In Poland most of new buses come low floor, at least in big cities. For example Wroclaw doesn't buy anything without low floor. Right now there is tender process for 100 low floor buses.
Thanks for info about stations.
On Czech Railway website I found trains which stops in Ostrava Stred. I think it is closest to the center.

[X236K]

Originally Posted by geogregor

Hmmm In Poland most of new buses come low floor, at least in big cities. For example Wroclaw doesn't buy anything without low floor. Right now there is tender process for 100 low floor buses.
Thanks for info about stations.
On Czech Railway website I found trains which stops in Ostrava Stred. I think it is closest to the center.

To clarify: *all* new vehicles being purchased in Ostrava are low-floored, but not many are purchased yearly. DPO prefers to refurbish old vehicles.

[tersyxus]

Originally Posted by Wizzard

Train station Ostrava-Svinov

Anyway, why was it necessary to build a covered hall for the existing old station? Lack of space?

[X236K]

Originally Posted by tersyxus

Anyway, why was it necessary to build a covered hall for the existing old station? Lack of space?

Yes. The old building hall was too small. They've moved the cash desks into the extension.

[tersyxus]

Great! Do you know infos on the construction costs? Look pretty light-material. Might be the cheapest and finest way of railway station extensions.

[X236K]

Originally Posted by tersyxus

Great! Do you know infos on the construction costs? Look pretty light-material. Might be the cheapest and finest way of railway station extensions.

CZK 315m (EUR 12,2m) for the extension itself
CZK 376m (EUR 14,6m) for surroundings + old building reconstruction

[tersyxus]

Originally Posted by X236K

CZK 315m (EUR 12,2m) for the extension itself
CZK 376m (EUR 14,6m) for surroundings + old building reconstruction

These prices sound good. Thank you for the pictures. I wish railway infrastructure had the same support in Hungary too.

Anyway, what about railway companies in CZ? A few questions. Has CD already been privatized to a certain extent? Or is it still an entirely state-managed company? Are there private-operating railway companies in CZ for passengers? Are there railway tracks that are privatized? Are there railway infrastructure investments that are not funded by the government but companies? Is CD profitable these years? What's the annual revenue of CD? Do you know of railway routes that have been closed recently due to the lack of passenger of cargo traffic? I just wanna compare the situation with Hungary, you know.

[X236K]

CD have not been privatized yet. Recently they've split into several companies operating passenger service, cargo and track maintanance separately. Actualy there is no private railway operator (correct me if I'm wrong) but one is on the way (Student Agency). All the track investments is funded by government.

And I have no idea whether they're making profit or lost... profit would surprise me a lot.

[tersyxus]

Thx. Well, Student Agency will certainly make profit. They gonna be really popular offering those low prices. I'm planning to use that agency regularly. I've just checked their prices this morning, and they are surprisingly cheap.

[X236K]

Originally Posted by tersyxus

Thx. Well, Student Agency will certainly make profit. They gonna be really popular offering those low prices. I'm planning to use that agency regularly. I've just checked their prices this morning, and they are surprisingly cheap.

I'm afraid they'll fail. Currently they only have buses that are quite cheap to buy (at least comparing to train). I wonder where are they going to get the money for trains? Being a bank, I would not lend them a single euro