Sprava zeleznic postpones major repairs for lack of money
Despite the cuts, the maintenance budget is higher than in 2020.
The rail infrastructure manager Sprava zeleznic is forced to postpone some line repairs originally planned for this year as state funding for railway operability has been cut.
The State Fund for Transport Infrastructure (SFDI) budget this year provides for CZK 14.385 billion in this area, which is a year-on-year decrease of more than CZK 2 billion. The Sprava zeleznic Board of Directors has previously warned that the reduction may lead to a halt in operations on some lines.
Sprava zeleznic admitted that the reduction may also result in increased occurrence of slow journeys on less busy lines. In other words, trains will have to run slower than before and there is a risk of more frequent delays.
At the request of CEETransport.com, Sprava zeleznic has published a list of some of the works that will be postponed until 2023 or 2024. The costs of each of these repairs have been estimated at CZK hundreds of millions. The cuts in the Sprava zeleznic budget are not as significant as in previous years: as recently as 2020, CZK 14.2 billion was budgeted under this entry, which is less than for this year.
List of planned repairs that will not take place this year
Power line repair in the Stara Boleslav – Drisy section
Track repair in the Nova Pec – C. Kriz section
Track repair in the Blatno – Petrohrad section
Edited and translated by Lucie Trávníčková.