Dejvice – Veleslavin tunnel in EIA now, will take 5 years to build
Trains should start running through the four-kilometer tunnel under Prague 6 in 2030.
The rail infrastructure manager Sprava zeleznic has taken an important step in preparing the most complex part of the new connection to Prague Airport. After years of preparation, it has submitted the Dejvice – Veleslavin section, which will form a tunnel over four kilometers long, to the EIA process.
According to the documentation, it will be a set of three interconnected tunnels. Construction is scheduled to take place from October 2024 to November 2029, with trial runs and cleaning until March 2030.
The entire section from the Prague Exhibition Grounds to Veleslavin has already been through the EIA process 13 years ago, with approval extended several times. The line was originally supposed to run on the surface; the original EIA can therefore only be used for the Vystaviste – Dejvice section, where no major changes were made, and the process must be carried out again for the selected tunnel variant.
In the end, a consensus was found on the southern tunnel variant (in blue on the plan), which is the deepest route. The line will run as deep as 83 meters below the surface, and almost three quarters of the tunneled section will be deeper than 50 meters underground.
Four options of the line to the airport in Prague 6. Credit: Sprava zeleznic
In the Praha-Vystaviste – Praha-Dejvice section, the stretch via the Stromovka park is planned as a surface line. The Dejvice station is newly planned as underground. Sprava zeleznic stated that in case of delays in the construction, trains from the airport could temporarily run to Veleslavin on the new line and from Veleslavin on to the center on the old single track line. Some trains would have to terminate at Veleslavin for capacity reasons.
The tunnel section is supposed to be the last to be completed. The estimated construction cost for the complete section Vystaviste – Veleslavin is approximately CZK 13 billion. A green corridor for pedestrians and cyclists should be created in the footprint of the existing line from Dejvice to Veleslavin.
Edited and translated by Lucie Trávníčková.
foto Railway crossing at Hradcanska, Prague, class 854 motor car. Credit: Jan Sindelar