Travel

According to the speaker of the Czech Railways (CD) the reason for ticket price increase are ever increasing price of electricity and especially of oil. The prices willl be levelled up at the end of the year 2008.

Those who will be affected the most are those who use kilometric banks. The little book containing coupons for 2000 km rises its price every year, now the price of 1 kilometre rises to almost 1czk. Anyway the prices of regular tickets will be increased, too: I.e. the ticket which ables to use all the train connections will cost 440 czk, 50 czk more than now.

A number of various advantageous tarifs wil be simply abandoned. The CD speaker Kabala commented on it, that such a growth wasn’t possible to expect, as the last week the oil went to unrecorded 32,30 czk/l. The machines that don’t run on electricity run on oil.

Since Thursday 8th May 2008, at about 4pm, the first metro with passangers will stop at the brand new stations on the Metro trace C, going to Letnany. The trains will go in shorter intervals than now, that means every 115 seconds compared to present two minutes. Some bus lines will be abandoned.

The new trace on C involves three new stations – Strizkov, Prosek and Letnany. Every one of them has its original design made by the architect Patrik Kotas. To make the new 4,6 kilometre long track cost 15,5 billion czk (620 mil €) and it will make travelling to and from the suburbs easier.

At first, let me explain the title. How do I perceive freedom of a square? People should be at least able to walk from one end to another, which is, in the case of Wenceslas Square, impossible. During the communist era, when to be a city architect was conditioned to be a communist, a speedway was placed among the cherry on the cake, and the cake – the National Museum building was cut off from the rest of the Wenceslas Square.

The Prime minister Mirek Topolanek, Pavel Bem and the Minister of Culture Vaclav Jehlicka are going to sign a memorandum today, to confirm moving the incriminated speedway under the ground. From the point of view of a Prague Citizen, this is a sign of hope the Wenceslas Square could return to the times of glory. The project will cost approximately 10 billions czk (400 mil €).

If you go to Prague very old centre, you know the situation – you want to make a picture of some sight, but than you hear a car horn and realize you stand in a street. Those of us who are used to other western-type cities of Europe, expect to walk or ride a bike freely in the old part of a city. The reason why it is not so in Prague is lack of by-passes, but this will soon change. At least according to Prague councilman Karel Kozeluh.

“We have studies ready for widening the footways for the next year already.” About 10 streets should be changed to footways in Vienna style – the street will be limited to two narrow lines, lifted to the level with the pavement. This will happen at the bottom of Wenceslas Square, as well as below the Central railway station.

What we, who prefer to walk or take a tram, should really look forward, is when the tunnel circuit below Strahov will be finished (2011) – the whole area by the river from the National Theatre to Rudolfinum will become a boulevard.

The art-group called ‘Deti sidlistni Recese’ based in Prague turned a subway car into a living room this past weekend. Their aim was to ‘Travel first class on the subway’ they needed 12 ‘Agents’

The whole action took place on Friday, April 4th. The group was spread station after station, and entered the metro train one by one, always carrying a piece of equipment. The first was a girl with a rug, spreading it on the floor. It got accompanied on the next station by a large armchair, than a table, antique telephone, slippers, and a flower in a vase.

When everything was set-up, the ‘landlord’ came in, all dressed-up, in a tie and suit, sat down and made himself comfortable; than, a nice cup of tea was served to his newspaper.

PS: This must have been fun. Do you rememer the fictive atomic bomb explosion project?

The regular flight from Brno to Prague, that takes place two times a day, is to increase its possibilities by setting three flights a day. The new service should provide better connection of the main flights from Ruzyne Airport into other countries of the world. Martina Zabloudilova from CSA stated yesterday.

Until the end of the year, the company plans to increase frequency of the connections among the two Czech biggest cities in the country up to four a day. Brno offers flights to Moscow, London and Spanish Gerona on daily basis.

Construction of the Metro line C extension is progressing further to the northeast to connect the city center to the large housing blocks in Prosek.

The new track will be 4,6 km long. There will be three more stations (Strizkov, Prosek and Letnany) they are planned to open in May 2008.

Expenses are about 15,5 billions czk, the three stations take care of an area inhabited by 50 000 people.

The sms ticket project has been working in Prague for just four months, but there are already debates, whether this way of selling will replace traditional paper tickets. What is for sure, the number of passengers travelling with sms tickets will grow steadily on, also because similar projects are planed to be realized by other larger cities in the republic.

The speaker of Prague Public Transport company (MHD) states: “sms ticket has really caught on in Prague. In average, 20 thousand travelers use it everyday.” The total of sold tickets is about 270 thousand. Which means – every 13th ticket in Prague is bought by a mobile phone.

The newcomer to the Prague family of tramways finally has its picture on the net. Made by Skoda, T15 should be a combination of highly effective design, performance and durability.

The difference from the older T14 would be design of this series was made by a Czech, not by Porsche like the last one. His name is Patrik Kotas, and neither he, nor Skoda want to talk about the model, before it will be officially introduced.

Prague has ordered 250 units. First T15 should get to Prague in 2009. Skoda deputies stated development cost over half billion czk. Lifespan of T15 should be 15 years longer than those of 1960’s (which have been in function for almost 50 years) and has 40% lower energy consumption.

Prague was visited by more than four million foreign tourists in 07, which puts it into ‘TOP 5’ of Europe. The travellers’ web TripAdvisor.com made a research, which outcome revealed New York, Paris and London with more than 200 000 votes proved they really form the world’s most tourist – famous places.

Prague got more votes than Florence, Madrid, Vienna, Budapest or Krakow. Tourists positively evaluated Prague cultural and nature sights, quality of accommodation and other services, prices or native citizen behaviour.

What the tourists have evaluated negatively? Especially rip-offs at money exchanges (calculate, how much you should get, before you hand the money over! If you see you pay way too much, chancel the trade and find another place!) and other rip-offs at taxis ( how to avoid?) or souvenir sellers (do you really need that many souvenirs anyway?)

Prague with its 4 millions tourists/year got in the first five of Europe. The most visited is London with its 14 millions, Paris with 10 millions and Roma with 6 millions.

The historic document, signed by Mirek Topolanek in Washington, is of comparable importance as the Schengen one.

The Memorandum of understanding describes, on eight pages, how the cancellation of visa for Czechs to the USA will proceed. The last piece of former Berlin wall will take its leave to the history this year already.

“This means, dreams of a few generations of Czech have been fullfilled.” Mirek Topolanek sated. He compared the signing to cutting of barbed wires at the Czech side of Czechoslovakia borders, after the Berlin wall has went down.

Michael Chertoff chose ceremonial words as well; “This is a milestone, which makes travelling to the USA from countries like the Czech Republic easier, and at the same time it strengthens security of both countries. We are really looking forward for first Czechs to come to the USA without visa, in October or November.”

During this weekend, the new tickets will be introduced at all common distributors. According to the MHD Prague Public Transport company they will be much safer, as they include more safety elements than the older travel vouchers. A controllers will recognize fakes much easier.

According to its speaker, the MHD doesn’t have much problems with counterfeiters, but they want to be up-to-date, according to modern standards.

The biggest change is in the color, which is green, with a color line according to the price. The pictures we provide are cut in half, if you want to see the whole design, check it here. If you want some information about SMS tickets in Prague, go here.

The Czech Republic was visited by 6,7 millions foreign tourists, which is an international increase of 3,8 percent. According to the stats of Czech Statistical Office the most favorite place remains traditionally Prague, which attracted 4,5 millions tourists in 2007.

About 60 % of foreign tourists visit Prague only. The problem is most of other regions lack large 4-5 star hotels, which could be offered in catalogs of travel agencies. Those are the hotels which are the most busy, informed the Association of Czech Travel agencies. Most of regions lack hotel infrastructure, but at least they have gastronomical specialties in well-developed restaurant system.

Since March, visitors of Prague can stay overnight in an unconventional hotel. In the boat designed as a huge yacht, anchored by the Rohansky island in the centre of Prague.

The luxurious 4-star hotel GolfYacht offers, besides accommodation, a golf spot for shooting balls into Vltava River. There are three kinds of cabins, restaurant, sun terrace, Finnish sauna and café on the board.

The yacht was build in Hamburg and it floated to Prague with great difficulties thanks to its massive size on the water.

The first new arrival to the CSA fleet, Airbus A319, is almost finished. In the Hamburg Airbus fabric it got itself already painted in red-white CSA colors and within a few days, the flying machine is ready to take off for its first test flight. Czech Airlines should receive the functional piece in the half of February.

The whole process of building a plane at Hamburg factory is more about assembling, than anything else. The plane is ready in 30 days. The first part ready is the fuselage, parts of which are made in France and Germany. Next part are the wings, build in Britain, and a the tail, build in Spain.

The final touch is made when the plane is painted in a company colors, before the inside is equipped. CSA Airbuses will fly in two classes – economy and business.

CD (Czech Railways) have finished cooperation with Czech Airways last year. Now, in 2008, they have made a contract with the low-budget airways Sky Europe.

One example of a trip; from Prague to Bratislava and back should cost about 1000 CZK (37 €). It is possible to choose either to go to Prague by a plane and back to Bratislava by Pendolino train or vice versa.

But there are other destinations – Milan, Brussels, Copenhagen or Venice for a very nice price 1290 CZK (48 €)

The main advantage is, according to Ales Ondruj, that the air tickets are possible to buy at a cash desk at a railway station. So one doesn’t need a credit card or the Internet access.

Experts support the idea of coming back to turnstiles. There used to be until 1980’s, now it works on the basis of trust- the passengers buy a ticket, and validate it at the validating machines before entering the metro. If a passenger has or hasn’t a ticket is controlled by a special unit, that can fine those who avoid paying.

This trust-based system is, according to recent studies, ineffective, as 5-10% Czech passengers regularly don’t pay in public transport. In total it makes 1,5 billion CZK (57 mil. €) loses a year.

The Prague Public Transport company published a report, stating the controllers collected over 100 mil. CZK in fines last year, and that is just a fraction of those who do the ‘black rides’ as Czechs call rides for free.

Not very much changed at the borders of the Czech Republic and Austria from the Austrian side. The Czech Republic entered Schengen space 21th December 2007, which means obvious free movement of goods and folks. But even when the border police disappeared from borders, on the Austrian site they just spread, and they check ‘suspicious vehicles’.

The former border police comments the situation; they want to control the number of refugees. Cars, that could be carrying them, are reported by police officers in civilian cars, up the road. The Schengen Kontrolle has wide support of Austria public.

From Thursday to Friday there is a huge change at the Czech borders going on – first, the crossing barriers are going to disappear. Second – the Police is almost going to leave the place. Third – the ‘line’ will became crossable almost anywhere.

Czech Republic enters the Schengen space on 21st December 2007. The Schengen space will grow of 9 other countries, like Poland, The Slovak Republic or Latvia.

The borders will be possible to cross by foot or by any other mean of transport. The only restrictions are in National Parks and protected nature areas.

Every state that is in Schengen space has the possibility to re-establish the borders checks for 30 days, with later reasoning.

When travelling to countries outside the Schengen space it is necessary to have a valid travel documents like a passport or visa.

When travelling with a pet, it needs to have a passport and a tattoo, or a chip.

At the airports, there will be even more checks, because the numbers of policeman there should rapidly increase. Later, checks of travellers from Schengen countries should have less quicker passes.

The Czech Republic obviously enters its new state of being, as a genuine and valid member of the united Europe.

Source: MF DNES

The map: dark blue: members, purple: new members, light blue: not yet implemented

Czech Airlines (CSA) were on the first place of the European chart of flight steadiness.

They were clearly at the position for the first three quarters of the year 2007. Steadiness of flight services is being evaluated by the Association of European Airlines (AEA). The jury decides among 26 classic flight companies, which activity is regularly evaluated since 2003.

CSA was successful in this test also last year, when it was second. CSA is, from the ‘new’ countries of the EU, the largest national flight company with their 5,5 million travelers just for the year 2006. High numbers of customers are expected this year too, as during just the half-year of 07, it dispatched 56 000 flights.