Správa železnice looking for ways to let cargo bypass Prague

Správa železnice is holding a tender for a feasibility study for the modernization and electrification of rails between Kralupy nad Vltavou and the Drisy station. The point of the exercise is to determine if it would pay off for the company to enable trains carrying cargo from Decin to destinations south of Prague to avoid the Czech capital. Already, the level of traffic along the Vltava valley for the northern approach to Prague is producing unacceptably high levels of sound. And the rail network between Prague and Kolin is already near its capacity. Modernizing a relatively short section of track north of Prague would allow trains headed from Breclav to Decin to avoid the city entirely. The idea makes sense to powerful voices in the cargo sector, but Správa železnic warns there's no guarantee of success for the study. "The result could be the conclusion that territorial restrictions on the railway infrastructure won't allow for the realization of the envisioned volume of transport," it wrote in the tender documentation.