Prague - Dresden feasibility study approved  

The central commission of the Czech Ministry of Transport has approved a feasibility study conducted by Czech infrastructure manager SŽ for the Czech section of a line to connect Prague with the German city of Dresden, 125km to the north. 

The first section will run from Prague to Litoměřice, at the southern point of the so-called Porta Bohemica section of the Elbe river valley. The line, which will be restricted to passenger services, will have a maximum speed of 320km/h. A new station is expected to be built on the outskirts of Roudnice nad Labem.  

The sections between Litoměřice and Ústí nad Labem, which crosses the Bohemian Central Mountains, and on from Ústí nad Labem to the German border will be open for freight services in order to reduce congestion on the existing main line along the Elbe River. 

A tunnel under the Bohemian Central Mountains will have a maximum line speed of 250km/h. A 26km tunnel with a maximum speed of 200km/h under the Iron Ore Mountains is envisaged, including 11.7km in the Czech Republic.   

The line will reduce Prague - Dresden travel times from 2h 12min to less than an hour.  

Consortium selected to plan eastern Prague section 

SŽ has selected a consortium of Sudop Prague, Egis Rail and Mott MacDonald to produce documentation for the construction of a high-speed line between Prague Běchovice and Poříčany, which forms part of the line from Prague to Pardubice, Brno and Ostrava. 

The Czech-French-British consortium won the Koruna 186.4m ($US 8.6m) contract against three other bidders. The contract includes drafting the design of the line, preparing the spatial planning process including proceedings and permits, and incorporating all required environmental measures, including permits.  

The section, dubbed High Speed Line Polabim, will form part of the high-speed line to Brno, the second biggest city in the Czech Republic, as well as part of the proposed high-speed line to Hradec Králové and Wrocław, Poland

The contract is due to be completed by mid-2022, with work on the line due to begin in 2025 and be completed in 2028.  

Prague East high-speed terminal design  

SŽ has also completed a competition to develop an architectural design for a new terminal station for the future high-speed line in the eastern suburbs of Prague, which received 21 designs from both national and international architectural offices. 

A jury of six independent architects, two SŽ employees and the mayor of Nehvizd has selected a design created by Mr Jiří Opočensý and Mr Štěpán Valouch as the winning submission. The station has the working name Prague East. 

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