The design of the railway track to Václav Havel Airport will be determined by a competition

Prague - The Administration of Railway and Transport Routes (SŽDC) will announce an architectural competition for the design of new stations that will be created during the modernization of the railway line from Prague to Kladno, with a branch to Václav Havel Airport. This was said today by the organization's spokesperson, Kateřina Šubová. The assignment for the competition should be completed by the end of the year.

Architects will likely be able to submit their designs to the competition next year. "The competition is currently being prepared. We expect to have time for preparation until the end of the year, considering that SŽDC has little experience with this process," Šubová stated, adding that they estimate the duration of the competition to be about three quarters of a year. "We expect a clearer form of the assignment to be known by the end of November," the spokesperson added, noting that at this moment she will not comment further on the details of the competition.

In the area of Prague, several new stations and stops will be added in connection with the construction, with others undergoing significant transformation. The train will stop at Výstaviště, and within the branch to the airport, stations Praha-Liboc, Praha-Dlouhá Míle, and Praha-Letiště Václava Havla will be created. The station at Veleslavín will be located underground, and the stop Praha-Ruzyně will be relocated.

The reason for announcing the competition, according to Šubová, is the effort to achieve the highest quality design of stations and stops, as well as the demands of the city and its districts. The design of public transport stations has recently become a topic in Prague concerning the planned metro line D. Some experts have criticized the city's leadership for the proposed design of new stops from the Metroprojekt company and have called for an open competition to be announced. A petition was also created, signed by thousands of people. The city eventually approved the announcement of the competition for the stations Náměstí Bratří Synků and Náměstí Míru, but for the stations in the section Pankrác-Písnice, according to the city leadership, it was not possible because Prague had already applied for a building permit by that time.

The modernization of the line to Kladno and the construction of a railway connection to the airport in Ruzyně has been discussed since the 1990s. In addition to the modernization of the line from Masaryk Railway Station, there were earlier considerations about the possibility of leading trains from the airport through the so-called Prague Semmering, meaning the railway between Smíchov and Řepy. Ultimately, a variant will be constructed at an estimated cost of 31 billion crowns, which addresses not only the connection to the airport but also better transport service for the Kladno area. The plan includes the construction of two single-track tunnels under Střešovice.