Newest tram type in Prague, a ForCity from Skoda
Postponed again and again, I finally
returned to Prague in early December 2016 after 15 years! My last
trip to Prague was also the last trip I made without a digital
camera, we are talking about 2001. I had travelled the Czech Republic
extensively and intensively during the last summer in preparation for
my forthcoming Tram Atlas Central Europe, a bit delayed but now
hopefully out on sale in March 2017. I left Prague for a separate
trip to finish off these journeys, but ever since September I had
been waiting for a nice weather forecast, but it was not until
December, already in winter, that a few mild days with a bit of sun
were annouced. So I got on an EC train directly from Berlin to
Prague, a calm journey of 4 1/2 hours. I stayed in Prague from 8 to 11 Dec 2016.
The purpose of the trip was mainly to
get a good selection of metro station photos, as tram photos are much
easier to get from other people. In the end, in three days I managed
to take photos in all the stations, so my files are filled for the
next decades [Visit my Praha Metro Gallery at UrbanRail.Net]. Though
not the usual harvest, I still got a few nice tram shots, too, and
with early sundown, some useable night shots, of course:
Older tram type, a Tatra T3
Let's start with tickets, a very easy
and cheap issue in Prague. A day pass (24 hours in fact) is just 110
Czech crowns, which is something like €3.50, a 72-hours pass is 310
CZK. As the Metro is an open system, you just stamp it the first time
and then pack it away until some ticket inspection happens, which I
didn't have in three day, though I once saw a couple checking tickets
inside a metro train.
Generally, the Prague Metro is a very
relaxed system, everybody seems to behave pretty well, no loud
people, no vandalism (visible) and hardly any security people around
which made me think they are not needed (in Berlin you hardly see any
but people believe we should have more!). No one hassles you when
taking pictures, neither staff nor passengers. Just the concourse
level at Muzeum seems to be a dodgy place with weird people hanging
around. There are signs like "Beware of pickpockets" which
is not surprising with the amount of tourists Prague gets at any time
of the year. Now with Christmas markets all around, the city was
packed, of course.
The Prague Metro is also a rather tidy
place, not as polished as Moscow's, but quite clean. The platform
level is usually a rather pleasant space, but some entrance areas
appear a bit too dark. In some stations on line C, the lights and
ceilings were renewed, making a much brighter space as some of the
older stations tend to be a bit dark. I'm glad they kept some of the
really fast escalators, though you have to watch out if you are not
used to these. Where they have been renewed they tend to be slower.
One morning I found one of the two up escalators at the A-to-C
interchange at Muzeum out of service, but a few hours later when I
went to catch my train back home it had already been fixed, despite
being a Sunday. Some of the deep-level tube stations in the centre
have already been equipped with lifts, but for those depending on
lifts, it may still be a challenge to use the Metro. Of course, these
lifts may be hidden somewhere on the surface, but there are signs
indicating their location.
Talking about signs, what I do miss in
Prague is a nice metro logo. They do use two kinds of symbols, but
none is used on what would be an easily spottable totem pole in the
street. Often the metro sign is only identifiable once you are at the
stairs leading down underground, like at Námestí Míru, where the
entrances are somewhat hidden behind the church at the eastern end of
the square, so unless you know, you will not be able to see the
entrances. Some entrances are covered and are thus more visible.
Interchanges with tram lines are generally good, and inside the
stations there are signs indicating which exit to take for which tram
direction - they don't show line numbers as these have changed again
and again.
Prague's Metro has always had its own
style, especially in those early years, when the Soviets helped to
build the Metro but did not impose a Moscow-style station design.
Instead, Prague chose a very specific 1970s look, standardised though
in varied colours on line A, and with a bit more variety on line B:
Line C, however, looks rather plain as it was originally designed as
a subsurface tram, and most of the older cut-and-cover stations are
not worth mentioning.
Hlavni nadrazi on Line C, a subsurface station with wide side platforms
One may not like the colours and shapes used on
the newer sections of lines A and C so much, somehow they appear a
bit tacky, but seeing them in real life, I found all of them very
pleasant spaces, and each with an individual note:
Strizkov is, of
course, a different thing altogether, not for its plain platform
level, but for its huge spanned roof structure. I guess the Metro
wanted to build something nice in an otherwise dull neighbourhood,
but from a budget point of view, it seems almost too much:
And the
terminus at Letnany, though a lovely station, is in the middle of
nowhere, still after some years of being open. Even the huge bus
interchange seemed quite deserted when I was there on Friday
afternoon compared to, e.g., Cerny Most or Zlicin. Looking on the
Google satellite image, I would say that the line is short by one
station as a large housing estate is just about one km further north.
And if those people need to take a bus anyway to catch the metro they
should rather go to Strizkov or even Ladví, both at a similar
distance.
The new stations on the western line A
extension have similar designs except the terminus Nemocnice Motol,
of course, which is only half underground and serves one of the
biggest hospital complexes in the city. During day time, every second
train turns back at Petriny, but I think this is not so much to save
a train, but due to the fact that Nemocnice Motol was not meant to
remain the terminus for a long time as the line was supposed to be
extended to the airport in a next phase. But this was shelved and a
rail link is to be built there instead. But construction on this link
which should be done together with a major upgrade of the Kladno rail
line, has not started yet. So, Nemocnice Motol only has two sidings
beyond the station, and one was occupied by a stabled train, leaving
just one track for reversing:
Refurbished Russian train reversing at Nemocnice Motol on Line A
At the other end, these trains turn
around at Skalka instead of going the short distance to the terminus
built inside Depo Hostivar, a rather plain encased station, though I
was actually positively surprised after having seen pictures of it
before; also surprised how many people were actually using it on a
Sunday morning.
The trains are generally also in good
shape, the newer CKD/Siemens trains on line C still look quite modern
with their large front window. What makes them appear old-style is
the fact that you cannot walk from car to car:
Prague started quite
early to refurbish all older Russian trains which now run on lines A
and B. Among all different modernised versions around Russian and
other cities, I have always found the Prague version the best
achieved.Giving trains a new front or livery often results in ugly
distorted vehicles (see Cologne's modernised B cars or Frankfurt's ex
U2 cars in latest livery), but in the case of Prague, the new front
seems to fit. Also the interior looks pleasant, although I find the
seats to be a bit too L-shaped, i.e. not really comfortable for me:
As with all Russian-style metros, the accoustic announcements are
quite good, I mean well-timed when the car noise is the lowest. The
"Ukoncite vystup a nastup, dvere se zaviraji" message could
be a bit shorter, so that doors could close faster. Here the problem
is like on the Berlin S-Bahn that people still jump on the train
because they know it still takes a while until the doors really
close. I prefer those metros where a simple yelling signal is enough
and doors close. It may save a few seconds, but above all, it gives
you a feeling of high speed of travel. But generally, station
dwelling time is reasonable in Prague. On some trains the doors
opened autmatically, while on others you had to push the button. Or
does that depend on the station? Or on the driver? Train frequencies
are quite adequate for the demand, every few minutes during rush
hours and every 10 minutes on a Sunday morning (although for a few
platform photographs, 10 minutes seemed sometimes long that
morning...).
Signage in the stations is o.k. but not
abundant. From the train, station signs are hard to read. On the
outer walls, they are in large metal letters, which looks nice. On
the platform itself, there are a few signs in the line's colour, but
not as many as in other metros. What I observed repeately is that
many people had problems reading the line diagram and which platform
was the one they needed:
Badly visible arrows next to "Staromestska"
In other cities you would find the strip map
divided with clear arrows indicating the platform edge. Here those
arrows are now quite clear. So in this case, Prague should follow the
global design and have standing strip maps on the side walls as you
come down the escalators. On the platforms there are information
windows with fares and a large nice geograhic map with trams and
buses, but I did not see any neighbourhood maps. Various generations
of ticket machines can be found in entrance areas, older ones just
take coins, but newer ones also accept international bank cards. Some
stations also have manned ticket windows.
A few words about Prague's tram system,
which is among the largest in Europe and for tourists, also an
excellent way of exploring the city especially when you're tired
after doing long walks. Several lines take you across one of the many
bridges and always provide an excellent view, always from a different
angle depending on the line you take. With 24 lines, the system may
appear a bit complicated for outsiders as there are no clear trunk
routes. But to find your way round, leaflets called "Prague
Transport in 10 Languages" are available in many metro stations
and include a good metro/tram map. Like the Metro, trams get very
packed in the central area, and punctuality can vary as especially in
the centre there are some sections where trams share space with cars
and do get stuck. Tram drivers are, however, always rather offensive
people, and I was surprised that I didn't witness any accidents,
particularly as many tourists may never have seen trams in their own
hometowns. They drive rather fast even in narrow streets and
pedestrians are not given priority at zebra crossings. I don't know
whether this is the rule, at least it is the reality. So, as a
pedestrian or a car driver, always watch out for trams!
Many of the routes have been upgraded
in recent years, but they lack the modern stop equipment you would
expect from a modern tramway. There is the old-style sign with a
timetable sheet and that's it. Next-tram indicators are very scarce,
modern ones can only be found on the relatively new route to
Barrandov, older ones on the route to Repy and in very few other
places. The important stops in the city centre don't have any kind of
next-tram indicators:
Most stops have some sort of platform, although
a few still require boarding from street level. What I appreciate a
lot in Prague is that not only the next stop is announced, but also
the following. In fact when the tram arrives at the stop, they just
say the name of the stop and then "pristi stanice" (next
stop) plus the name of the next stop. On new trams, the next stop is
even displayed on the outside of the tram next to the tram's
destination, also a useful detail, although I only discovered this on
my last tram journey! Another little detail that helps passengers is
an arrow at the tram stop to indicate whether a line continues
straight or turns left or right after that stop.
Refurbished T3 with centre low-floor access
In the tram fleet there are still lots
of old Tatra T3 cars. Many people love them, but they are, of course,
rather outdated when it comes to accessibility. Prague hasn't
modernised too many of them with a low-floor centre access, but
fortunately, the new Skoda ForCity trams are becoming very frequent.
All in all, these are quite nice, run smoothly as long as the track
is good, but despite those heavy bogies they have this uncomfortable
lateral kick in curves (in this respect nothing beats the T3s). I
think I was not the only one to find the wooden seats in the first
batch of ForCity trams a bit too hard because the newer trams now
have plastic seats, not too soft either, but better than the wooden
ones. Probably determined by the front bogie, which actually sits
under the driver's cab, the front looks rather massive for an urban
tramway, with many slimmer designs being available in other cities.
Front and rear of newest ForCity generation
All in all, Prague has an excellent
urban rail system and shows that metro and tram are two systems that
complement each other. Seeing the masses the metro carries every day,
it is impossible to imagine that trams alone would be capable of
coping as some tramway advocates try to suggest. The trams themselves
are quite busy and putting on more trams would just create real tram
jams. Prague is also a good example for those who think that parallel
metro/tram operation as such is something very bad. Prague has many
routes doubled by trams and metro, and both carry enough passengers.
Especially for trips across the city centre, of course, the Metro is
much faster, but for shorter trips, the tram is certainly the winner
as the deep-level stations require some extra time too.
I haven't used the Esko trains, a kind
of S-Bahn service. I wonder whether people perceive it as part of the
urban rail system or just a rebranded regional rail service. The
double-deck trains on major routes look quite o.k., but those diesel
units look rather pathetic, especially in combination with the
railway stations I saw. At the end of the tram route to Sidliste
Repy, there is actually an interchange to the winding S65 at the
station called Zlicin, but this was not very inviting, with not even
a timetable posted anywhere. A similar impression left the station
next to the brand new Nadrazi Veleslavin metro station. I guess
Prague could do with the "big solution" by creating a major
underground trunk route shared by all lines. The present Masarykovo
nadrazi could be replaced by a deep-level underground station which
also serves Hlavni nadrazi and then a cross-city tunnel to Smichov
with a branch to Vrsovice.
LINKS
Dopravni Podnik Prahy (Official Website)
