The train operation under exclusive ETCS has “generally met expectations” with a reliability of over 99 percent, one month after its launch, the Transport Ministry of the Czech Republic says. After a month of operation, trains have travelled 2 million kilometers with an average of 1,600 trains per day.
In January 2025, over 30,000 trains were operated under ETCS supervision and the total distance travelled exceeded 2 million kilometers. After the launch of selected sections into exclusive operation under ETCS, an average of 1,600 trains moved daily, which corresponds to a monthly volume of up to 50,000 trains.
For 99.1% of trains, full ETCS supervision was ensured throughout the entire journey without any failures, which means that the reliability of operation was at a high level, the Ministry of Transport explains. Only 0.9% of trains had to be stopped by a preventive safety response, these are so-called trips. The average time for the train to restart after this stop was shortened to 2 minutes and 51 seconds, and therefore there were no significant delays in the entire operation. The train stops most often occurred on the route near Česká Třebová. This is a higher-lying line, and the problems were mainly related to the deteriorated weather conditions, where snow or ice played a role. In cooperation with rail operators and technology suppliers, the rail infrastructure manager, Správa železnic (SZ) is working to optimise the system so that these situations do not occur next winter.
The first month of ETCS operation has confirmed that the European signalling system is truly effective in ensuring railway safety and at the same time it has also highlighted areas where further adjustments and technical challenges need to be made. Správa železnic and the carriers will continue to systematically analyse operations and, if necessary, take further measures to ensure smooth and safe transport.
Czechia has been working two years for the final phase of intensive testing, system fine-tuning, preparations by railway undertakings and on the infrastructure. This was possible after gathering information from the exclusive test operation on the Moravian 29 km single-track regional line between Olomouc and Uničov, which ETCS installation has been completed in December 2022.
Since 2017, when the Ministry of Transport decided that Czechia needs a unified comprehensive and human-independent traffic control system, Správa železnic, all railway undertakings, the Ministry of Transport and suppliers of technology for trackside and on-board ETCS equipment have been preparing the introduction of exclusive operation. The Czech Government supported the railway undertakings to equip their rolling stock with a financing of CZK 7.7 billion (EUR 307.4 million) between 2018 and 2024 and were implemented 67 projects involving 1,227 vehicles. In August, the state owned rail carrier České dráhy announced the completion of the ETCS onboard installation in 422 of its vehicles.
“ETCS is quite a complex instrument linking locomotives, tracks and the track surroundings. Despite the careful, long-term preparation and gradual ramp-up of the system, we are aware that situations can and probably will arise, especially in the first period after 1 January, which may lead to train stopping or delays,” the Minister of Transport, Martin Kupka, said.
Czechia started the train operation under exclusive ETCS on January 1, 2025, on selected rail lines totalling 622 km situated on main corridors which account for more than 42% of the operating performance of trains on the network of Správa železnic. The total cost of launching the system on more than 4,000 km of domestic lines by 2030 has been estimated at approximately CZK 32 billion (EUR 1.3 billion). On the TEN-T lines, ETCS Level 2 will be installed while the other domestic sections will gradually be equipped with either ETCS level 2 or ETCS level 1 Limited Supervision.
The rail infrastructure manager is proceeding according to the National Implementation Plan set by the government to install ETCS technology and the country is committed to deploy the new technology based on a previous decision of the European Commission.
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