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Low-floor tramcar 14T No. 9117 on Route 12 at Andel
Monday, March 3, 2008
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The Prague Tram System is the largest tram system in the Czech Republic, consisting of 133 kilometres of track, 951 tram cars, and 35 lines. It is operated by Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy a.s., a company owned by the City of Prague. The system serves over 340 million passengers a year. The first horsecar tram line was opened in 1875, the first electric tram ran in 1891.
The horse-driven trams started to operate on September 23, 1875: Along the following route "Karlin - National Theater" (Karlín - Národní divadlo). The owner and the enterpreneur of this road was Eduard Ottlet, from Belgium. This way lead to the theater, along the "Narodni Trida" street. Tracks went approximately in direction of Metro Line B, Northwest of "Narodni Trida" toward Karlin.
In 1876 this way was extened west of the National Theater, through the "Ujezd" hub To the "Smichov Railway Station". Yet the new divisions were not completed yet;
In 1882 the horse tram network was still extended, that time up to Vinogrady and Zhizhkov. That' time it was a suburb of Prague, now its a cadestal part of the city.
In 1883 again, the size of the entire network in 19,43 kilometers. The entire network was managed by the general direction of Prague Tram.
In 1891 the first electric tram line was opened on Letna íà (Letná is one of favourite walk places in Prague). This way lead from the upper terminal of the Letna Funicular, where the pavelion of Regional Aniversary Exhibition was located, to the place of nowadays exhibition on Oveneckou street. And then, after two more eyars, this line was extended to the Governor's Villa, "on 1,4 kilometer totally. The early tram electrification in Prage - in a deserve of the engineer, named František Křižek.
In 1896, on March 19ãî František Křižek opened another tram line, which leads from todays Florence newighborhood, to the Libeň and Vysočany cadestal areas. (Praha - Libeň - Vysočany) Being generated from the primary tram line, disturbing to the firstible character of the Exhbition pavelion, this way was too busy. It jointed the working districts of Prague with its living quarters in a center.
In 1897 without loosing any time, again the new tram line is opened. That time it was the out-of-town space. It was named, "Glavachkova electric railway, along the route (Smíchov - Košíře). later on, the new passenger railroad, named (Královské Vinohrady) was opened. The Praha - Vinohrady stretch spams 5,8 kilometers, has 17 stations, and further passes through Nove Mesto. THe route was formed by joining to the electric railway of Vinohrady cadestal area.
At another side of the city, thatnks to above-listed railway between Andel and Smichov, it alloved Prague tram to provie one-seat-ride between Kashirzhe and Vinohrady. Finally, the city enterprice, named the Prague Transportation Enterprice was formed.
In 1898 the horse railway was bought by this enterprice. ue to the this the construction of new track started along with electrification of the existing tracks.
In 1905 The electrification works were finished. Even the last horse tram routelast route of through the Charles Bridge was electrified (also a project of František Křižek) The tram route through the Charles Bridge worked till 1908.
The coming of war conflict with the fast pace, elaborated new strains to the network. In favor of earlier-comming sanitation trains from a war frontier, sanitation trams were rebuilt to. The lack of horse wagons – then the transportation problems in metropolis construction –by itself , it forced the imposition of such tram elaboratons as, transporting the warfare and fuel, raw materials, and food. During the war, the product of amunition, warfare should go for every price with an increasing demand, It came also to the remelting of trams and falls of capacities (on shopfloors this produced granades and bombshels, etc). Such a situation ended by the year of 1918, by signing the Peace Treaty noted as Czechoslovakian Republic.
Again, the trams nuetwork underwent the expansion – Mainly till the newly built quarter in nowadays Metropolitan Prague, such as Dejvice, Nusle or Žižkov. By the year of 1927 the construction fo the network exceeded in Hlubočepích with 100 km yet, (to the day it costed a dairy). Herewith they began to join new tram types. In the view of that,that the tracks were unidirectional its was impossible to make the dead ends on the turns, or later on, on the loops. Sequentially, there was necessary to rebuild many terminals, in this fashion.
In the middle of 1920ies, the tram network began to be joined with their competetives – the buses. But for anything else, euqally modern for that time, so as trams could exist in threat.
(as it became 50 years later) and a tram network first was imporoved on-place, where it was impossible to expand due to technical reasons. Increasing largeness of the Prague and its tram network and increasing distance tarrifs started to slow down the transportation from one end of metropolis to another. In view of the computation of lines and cornering(???) trams steadily grew.
The most transportational fall in a city center, such as on "Na Příkopě" and "Václavské náměstí", began to be overviewing. Such as untwist of situation was found, various attention was aatracted about placing trams underground or of a spped-tram, byt the eand of 1930ies. The projecting deskroom was directed, whose coherence was on suggesting of the best solution.
The Prague Metro comprises three lines, each of which is represented by its own color on the maps and signs: Line A (green), Line B (yellow) and Line C (red). There are 54 stations in total (three of which are transfer stations) connected by more than 50 kilometers of mostly underground railways. The metro service operates between 5 A.M. and midnight every day, with about two- to three-minute intervals between trains during rush hours. Over 620 million passengers use the Prague Metro every year.
The metro is run by the Prague Public Transit Company Inc. (Dopravní podnik Praha or DP Praha) which manages all means of public transport around the city (the metro, tramways, buses, the funicular to Petřín Hill and the chairlift inside Prague Zoo). Since 1993, this system has been connected to commuter trains and buses and also to "park-and-ride" parking lots. Together they form a public transportation network reaching further from the city called Prague Integrated Transport (Pražská integrovaná doprava—PID). Whilst the large system is zonally priced, the metro is fully inside the central zone.
It is not uncommon for the Prague Metro to have combined stations, i.e. stations that are physically located between two squares or junctions. (This is why the name of a station may easily turn up at two different places in the city, or there may occur unnamed stations on the map.) The main hubs are the general places where confusion can arise, often it is a problem of the unfamiliar language to tourists. It is not enough to merely get off at the right station; one should also watch out to choose the right way out to the surface, otherwise he may find himself at a different place, five or ten minutes' walking distance from the required destination. However, a familiarity with the system beforehand can make the difference.
The Prague metro system is laid-out as a triangle, with all three lines meeting in the center of the city at three interchange stations. (A single interchange station could get overcrowded). The depth of the stations (and the connecting lines) varies considerably. The deepest station is Náměstí Míru, located 52 meters under the ground. Parts of the tracks in the city center were mostly bored using the tunneling shield. Outer parts were dug by the cut-and-cover method and the stations are only a few meters under the surface. The B line partly runs inside a glassed-in tunnel above the ground.
Most stations have a single platform in the center of the station hall (tunnel) serving both directions. The sub-surface stations have a straight ceiling sometimes supported by columns. The deep-level stations are larger tunnels with the track tunnels on each side. The walls of many stations are decorated using colored aluminium panels, each station having its own color.
The Prague metro system is laid-out as a triangle, with all three lines meeting in the center of the city at three interchange stations. (A single interchange station could get overcrowded). The depth of the stations (and the connecting lines) varies considerably. The deepest station is Náměstí Míru, located 52 meters under the ground. Parts of the tracks in the city center were mostly bored using the tunneling shield. Outer parts were dug by the cut-and-cover method and the stations are only a few meters under the surface. The B line partly runs inside a glassed-in tunnel above the ground.
Most stations have a single platform in the center of the station hall (tunnel) serving both directions. The sub-surface stations have a straight ceiling sometimes supported by columns. The deep-level stations are larger tunnels with the track tunnels on each side. The walls of many stations are decorated using colored aluminium panels, each station having its own color.
Although the Prague metro system is relatively new, ideas to build some kind of underground transport in the city reach far into its history. The first proposal to build a sub-surface railway was made by Ladislav Rott in 1898. He encouraged the city council to take the advantage of the fact that parts of the central city were already being dug up for sewer work. Rott wanted them to start digging tunnels for the railway at the same time. However, the plan was denied by the city authorities. Another proposal in 1926, by Bohumil Belada and Vladimír List, was the first to use the term "Metro", and though it was not accepted either, it served as an impulse for moving towards a real solution of the rapidly developing transport in Prague. In the 1930s and 1940s, intensive projection and planning works were being held, taking into account two possible solutions: an underground tramway (regular rolling stock going under ground in the city center, nowadays described as a "pre-metro") and a "true" metro having its own independent system of railways. After World War II, all work was stopped due to the poor economic situation of the country, although the three lines, A, B and C, had been almost fully projected.
In the early 1960s the concept of the sub-surface tramway was finally accepted and on 9 August 1967 the actual building of the first station (Hlavní nádraží) started. However, at the same year, a substantial change in the concept came, as the government, under the influence of Soviet advisers, decided to build a "true" metro system instead of an underground tramway. Thus, during the first years, the construction continued while the whole project was conceptually transformed. The regular service of the first section of line C began operating on 9 May 1974 between Sokolovská (now Florenc) and Kačerov stations. Building continued quite rapidly after that. In 1978 the first section of line A was opened and, finally, line B opened in 1985, thus forming the triangle with three crossing points. Since then, the tracks have been extended further from the center. Line B was extended from Zličín to Nové Butovice in 1994 and from Českomoravská to Černý Most in 1998. The Kolbenova and Hloubětín stations were opened in 2001.
On 22 February 1990, 14 stations with names reflecting Communist ideology were changed to be politically neutral. Leninova station, which contained a giant bust of Lenin before the Velvet Revolution, was renamed Dejvická after a nearby street and surrounding neighbourhood.
In the meantime, the old Russian trains are slowly wearing out and are being reconstructed or replaced. The reconstructed trains are projected to serve for another 15 years. The renewal of the rolling stock should be completed by 2007.
August 2002, flooded stations and linesIn August 2002, the metro suffered disastrous flooding that struck parts of Bohemia and other areas in Central Europe (see 2002 European flood). 19 stations were flooded (see map [1]), causing a partial collapse of the transport system in Prague; the damage to the metro has been estimated at approximately 7 billion CZK (over $200 million). The affected sections of the metro stayed out of service for several months; the last station (Křižíkova, located in the most-damaged area - Karlín) reopened in March 2003. Small silver plates have been placed at some stations to show the highest water level of the flood.
Kobylisy station, line C (2004)A northern extension of line C was opened on 26 June 2004, with two more stations, Kobylisy and Ládví. Notable is the way that the new tunnels were built under the Vltava river. A unique "ejecting-tunnels" technology had been chosen to underpass the river. First, a trench was excavated in the riverbed and the tunnels had been concreted in the dry docks on the riverbank. Then the docks were flooded, and the afloat tunnels were moved as a rigid complex to their final position, sunk, anchored and covered.
Line A was recently extended farther to the east. The opening of the new terminus, Depo Hostivař, took place 26 May 2006. The station has been constructed in the building of an existing railway depot. The extension is the first segment of the system that has been built above ground and is not covered by a tunnel.
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