The Czech Republic has announced its intention of building a high-speed rail network to ensure the connection to Western Europe’s high-speed system, contributing to the increase of capacity on the existing infrastructure, as well as of the rail transport share. One of the projects that are way ahead with the implementation is Dresden-Prague high-speed railway for which discussions have been held and several studies have been carried out. The Czech railway infrastructure manager announced that in the first phase of 2019, the final study of the railway that will connect the two cities in just 50 minutes should be completed.
This spring, the Czech Government approved a plan on developing a high-speed network to allow trains to travel at over 300 km/h. A series of studies have been elaborated for a network of over 650 km of railways that will require investments of over EUR 24,5 billion.
The network would connect Czech Republic to the existing network in Western Europe, especially to Germany, via Dresden, in the north-west, via Domažlice, in the south-west. From Dresden, the route passes through Prague and Brno, to Břeclav, where options include further connections to Vienna and Bratislava. Considered routes will connect Brno to Katowice and Prague to Wrocław. Plans could be achieved by 2035, but Minister of Transport Dan Ťok has not provided details about the launch of constructions works saying his ministry elaborates a law so that the plan could become achievable as soon as possible. Under the law currently in force, a period of 10 years is necessary to launch works, but if a new law is passed, the process could be accelerated and works could begin a lot faster.
Prague-Dresden high-speed railway is a project of much interest, both Czech Republic and Saxony declaring in 2016, as well as in 2017, that the project is more than necessary.
During a meeting with Minister-President of the Free State of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said “both parties agreed that Prague-Dresden high-speed railway project is a priority as it will significantly reduce travel time, eliminate traffic pressure in the region on the main connection between Czech Republic and Germany and will enable the transfer of freight traffic to railways”.
Moreover, last year, during an official visit, the prime minister and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the importance of upgrading rail connections between the two countries, mentioning also the project of Prague-Dresden high-speed railway that will be connected to the HSR network of Western Europe.
The route
The railway is one of the most important rail projects in Central Europe to connect Germany and Czech Republic through Elbe Valley and through a border tunnel through Ore Mountains, as well as an essential connection of Orient / East-Med Corridor which connects North and Baltic Sea ports to the economic centres of South-Eastern Europe. The railway will, actually, connect nine EU member states.
On this corridor, the existing connection between the two countries passes through Prague and Dresden and it will be one of the most crowded railways which sustain the largest share of rail freight transport between the north and the south-east Europe. At the moment, this connection is used by over 200 trains a day and, according to estimates, the railway capacity limit will be exceeded on medium term. To meet future traffic demands, studies show that the modernisation of the existing railway in Elbe Valley, between Dresden – Bad Schandau – Děčín – Ústí nad Labem stations, is not economically or environmentally feasible. This railway connection was built 150 years ago. For “Preliminary Planning Services new high-speed rail line Dresden-Prague”, the EU granted EUR 629 thousand (50%) of the total EUR 1,25 million cost. The study was completed at the end of 2015. It included the preparatory studies for the cross-border section between Heidenau (Germany) and Ústí nad Labem (Czech Republic) and its continuation to Prague. Also, DB Netz AG elaborated the studies “Scope of Traffic” and “Time Table Study” for Dresden – Ústí nad Labem sections, documents that confirm Saxony’s base objectives in this direction. For example, the travel time on the new route between Dresden and Ústí n.L. will be reduced by around 12% for freight traffic and by two thirds for passenger traffic.
At the beginning of 2016, Saxony’s Minister of Transport, Martin Dulig, presented the conclusions of a feasibility study for Dresden – Prague connection which emphasises that the new alignment will deviate from the existing railway on Dresden – Ústi nad Labem – Prague axis in Heidenau (south of Dresden), entering the 1-km long Heidenau tunnel and then crossing Seidewitz viaduct (1.040 m). The Heidenau–Großsedlitz tunnel needs to be constructed for the new railway line; due to the topography of that area the tunnel sections are interrupted by a 120-m long trough structure at which the central rescue access for this tunnel will be located. This tunnel with twin tubes at about 29 m between the tubes consists of two sections with a length of 1 km each.
The main engineering element of the new line is the 26.5-km long Erzgebirge twin tube tunnel at the border between Germany and the Czech Republic, between Heidenau and Ústí nad Labem. It will be 15-km long in Germany and 11.4-km long in Czech Republic. Heidenau – Ústí nad Labem section will have 43 km and will be designed for the traffic of freight and passengers with loops for freight trains. From Ústí nad Labem, the railway will cross Elba River using a new bridge built along the existing one, before continuing south of Litomĕřice, following, more or less, the route of D8 highway to Prague. This section will have 80 km and will be designed for speeds of 350 km/h. In the suburbs of Prague, the route will enter a 4.5-km tunnel with extensions under Prosek and Střížkov areas and stopping at Vysočany main station.
Recently, Czech rail infrastructure manager, SŽDC, announced that he final study for Prague-Dresden high-speed connection must be completed in the first half of 2019. Currently, geologists from Czech Republic and Saxony are elaborating the necessary expertise for the routes and the result is a 3D unitary cross-border map. Also, the development of social and economic analyses will be another important component of the study. So far, Czech Republic and Saxony have completed three preliminary studies to be used for the next feasibility study of the railway to begin in Dresden, passing through Ústí nad Labem to Prague.
Starting with 2035, the two cities will be connected through the new high-speed railway that will reduce CO2 emissions and noise. The end purpose of the project is to increase traffic capacity and to reduce travel time from 2 hours to 52 minutes cutting the distance between Dresden and Prague by 56 km. The railway development project is implemented through the Programme for Supporting Cross- border Cooperation between the Czech Republic and the Free State of Saxony 2014–2020, co-financed by the European Union.
by Pamela Luica
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