FOLLOWING a study by Czech rail infrastructure manager SŽDC, the Czech Ministry of Transport has selected a preferred option for a rail link between Prague city centre, Vaclav Havel International Airport, and the town of Kladno to the northwest of the capital.

THE Bavarian Railway Authority (BEG) and Karlovy Vary regional transport authority have signed an eight-year contract with Netinera Germany subsidiary Länderbahn to operate a new cross-border Hof - Cheb service, which will be introduced when the 7.6km link between Selb, Germany, and Aš, Czech Republic, reopens in December.

THE first InterPanter five-car EMU built by Škoda Transportation was presented to Czech Railways (ČD) at the Velim test circuit on June 25.

OSTRAVA has become the first city in the Czech Republic to gain a dedicated airport rail link with the inauguration of a new connection to Leoš Janáček International Airport on April 13.

THE prime minister of the Czech Republic Mr Bohuslav Sobotka and the mayor of Prague Mrs Adriana Krnáčová officially opened the latest addition to Prague's metro network on April 6, when they took an inaugural trip on the 6.1km western extension of Line A from Dejvická to Nemocnice Motol.

THE regional public transport authority of South Bohemia, Czech Republic, has awarded a 15-year regional passenger services operations contract worth Koruna 2.25bn ($US 87m) to GW Train Regio (GWTR).

CZECH Railways (CD) has awarded Škoda Transportation contracts totalling Koruna 1.1bn ($US 45m) to modernise 93 locomotive-hauled coaches for Prague – Berlin – Hamburg EuroCity services.

Czech infrastructure manager, SŽDC, has awarded Kapsch CarrierCom a contract worth €14.7m to install GSM-R on the 185km line linking the West-Bohemian cities of Beroun, Plzeň and Cheb.

POLAND's PKP Cargo signed an agreement on December 30 to acquire an 80% stake in AWT, the Czech Republic's second-largest railfreight operator, from Czech businessman Mr Zdenek Bakala and the Bakala Trust.

CZECH open-access long-distance operator RegioJet has taken delivery of the first of three Siemens Vectron locomotives, which are being leased from European Locomotive Leasing (ELL) under a five-year contract.