The Prague Metro (Pražské metro) is the underground railway of Prague and the backbone of the city's public transport. It is operated by the Prague Public Transit Company, a joint-stock company wholly owned by the City of Prague.[2] The network consists of three lines, A, B and C, with 61 stations and a total length of 65.4 km.[2] A fourth line, D, has been under construction since 2022.[3]*
Earlier proposals
The first proposal for an underground railway was submitted by Ladislav Rott in 1898. In 1926 Vladimír List and Bohumil Belada produced a study of a rapid urban railway called "Metro", the first detailed design for Prague. In May 1941 the detailed design of line A from Dejvice to Pankrác was handed over, but the war prevented construction. In 1949 the project was finally abandoned.[1]
In January 1966 construction of an underground tramway began in Opletalova Street, and in March 1967 work started on the first station, Hlavní nádraží. After a Soviet expert review, the Czechoslovak government decided by a resolution of 9 August 1967 to skip the underground tramway stage and build a metro directly.[1]
Lines A, B and C
Regular service began on 9 May 1974 on the first line, today's line C, between Kačerov and Sokolovská with 9 stations. It was served by Ečs cars from the Soviet Union, the first six of which arrived in Prague on 16 October 1973.[1] Line A opened on 12 August 1978 between Náměstí Míru and Leninova with 7 stations, and line B on 2 November 1985 between Smíchovské nádraží and Sokolovská.[1] On 22 February 1990, 13 stations were renamed, for example Leninova to Dejvická, Gottwaldova to Vyšehrad and Sokolovská to Florenc.[1]
Line B was extended to Zličín in 1994 and to Černý Most in 1998. Line C reached Ládví in 2004 and Letňany in 2008. On line A, Depo Hostivař station opened in 2006, and on 6 April 2015 the section from Dejvická to Nemocnice Motol.[1] During the floods of August 2002 several stations and sections of track were flooded; from 15 August 2002 the metro ran a limited service only on the sections that had not been flooded.[1]
Rolling stock and stations
Trains normally consist of five cars. Line C uses M1 cars from the Kačerov depot, lines A and B use 81-71M cars, created by rebuilding older Soviet 81-71 cars. The metro has three depots: Kačerov, Zličín and Hostivař.[2] Ečs cars were withdrawn on 29 June 1997.[1] The first passenger lifts were put into service in 1992 at Hlavní nádraží; in 2024, 47 stations were step-free.[1]
Line D
Construction of line D began on 21 April 2022 with the first section, Pankrác–Olbrachtova, including the transfer station Pankrác. Construction of a new metro line had last begun on 1 October 1978. At that time the transit company expected completion by the end of 2029.[3] The shortest section that can be operated on its own, Pankrác–Nové Dvory, is 4.6 km long and has five stations: Pankrác, Olbrachtova, Nádraží Krč, Nemocnice Krč and Nové Dvory. The whole first operational section is to run from Náměstí Míru to a depot in Písnice.[5] Construction of the Olbrachtova–Nové Dvory section began on 19 June 2026. The transit company now expects the Pankrác–Nové Dvory section to open in the second half of 2032. Line D is to be the first line in Prague with fully automatic, driverless operation.[4]
Chronology
- — A closure began on Prague metro line C over the long weekend for sleeper replacement; trains do not run between Pražského povstání and Chodov stations. → iROZHLAS Seznam Zprávy
Pages linking here
- Holešovice
- Metro D from plans to construction
- Prague Metro Line C
- Prague Public Transit Company
- Renaming of Prague streets and squares
- Vltava