Next stop Libuš. Prague residents can take a ride on the extended tram route – Nauzal

The new double-track tram line Sídliště Modřany – Libuš is an extension of the line from the existing Sídliště Modřany interchange along Generála Šišky Street and then Novodvorská Street to the Libuš stop, where it ends at a temporary dead end.

The Sídliště Modřany loop was prepared for this purpose since its construction in 1995. But after that, the intention to extend the trams fell silent for two decades. Preparations for the extension only began in 2015, and the construction itself six years later.

The construction lasted 420 days, or 60 weeks, i.e. a year and less than two months. The cost of construction of the line should not exceed 304.17 million crowns without VAT. 85 percent of eligible costs will be covered by European Union subsidies from the Operational Program Transport 2.

The first stop in the direction to Libuš is Modřany fire stationwhich is located opposite the fire station of the same name.

The next stop is Libuš Observatorywhich is located opposite the access road to the premises of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute.

Third stop Libuš housing estate is located between Generála Šiška and Brunelová streets, roughly opposite Papírníková street and about a hundred meters before the intersection of Generála Šiška, Meteorologické and Novodvorská streets. There is also a direct transfer to bus lines here.

Next is the intersection of Generála Šišky, Novodvorská and Meteorologická streets, which was rebuilt from the original roundabout to a new light-controlled one. The tram line, which forms the fourth arm of the intersection, enters the axis of Novodvorská street here and continues with the grassy top to the area of ​​bus stops today still called Pavlíkova, with effect from tomorrow, Saturday, May 27, 2023 renamed to Libuš.

The final tram stop of the same name is established at this location Libuswhich will simultaneously serve as a temporary turning point.

In the coming years, it will be followed by another extension of the tram line to the Nové Dvory interchange, to the future metro station D of the same name, where the line will end with a block loop.

For the first time, the Prague-Libuš district is connected by rail to the city center. Passengers should get to metro station A, Staroměstská, in the historic heart of the city, in 32 minutes with the “seventeenth” train, and in 26 minutes with the “B” train at Palackého náměstí.

“The importance of the tram line will increase after the extension to Nové Dvory is completed and after the Dvorecký bridge is put into operation, because a direct connection with Prague 5 will be created and a new alternative connection to the center of Prague will be created,” said Zdeněk Hřib, 1st Deputy Mayor of the capital, on Friday. City of Prague for the field of transport and chairman of the DPP supervisory board.

“I firmly believe that in the fall we will add the line Holyně – Slivenec, as well as Divoká Šárka – Dědina. Although it is not a new construction, in a week we will also start driving on the reconstructed Ohrada – Palmovka line. I am extremely pleased that we are successfully preparing and implementing new track projects. For this, a big thank you goes to my colleagues from DPP, for the support of our shareholder, hl. m. of Prague and, in the case of the implementation of this line, also to the contractors that they have met the construction deadline,” said Petr Witowski, Chairman of the Board and CEO of DPP.

In connection with the commissioning of the tram line to Libuš, there will be significant changes in the operation of buses in other parts of the city as well.

Bus line 165 will be completely cancelled. “Given that approx. 60% of the construction costs will be covered by a contribution from EU funds (OPD2), it is no longer possible to operate the existing bus lines in the section between Nádraží Modřany and Sídliště Libuš together with the connections of tram line 17 line 165,” said the transport organizer about the change.

Route 165 will be replaced not only by route 17, but also by changed buses 139, 154 or 246. The route will also be changed by routes 122, 197 or 213.

A new bus line 126 will also be established. It will connect Uhříněves, Háje, Chodov and Koleje Jižní Město.

Due to the lack of two-way KT8 trams and a total of three Prague headland final stops, the transport company plans to adjust the operation of other tram lines as of June 3.

Trams of the KT8 type are three-link, which means that they are not two cars coupled one behind the other. They are two-way, so they have doors on both sides and a cabin for the driver at each end.

“This is a very disadvantageous situation for us. However, the loop could not be implemented at the Libuš stop as we had imagined. In cooperation with the city, we then found another solution, namely the extension of the line to Nové Dvory, and now the situation is complicated for us in that we have three dead ends. On Pankrác, in Libuš and in Holyn,” Jan Šurovský, the technical director of the surface transport section of the Prague transport company, described the situation.

“The pressure will ease in the fall when we open the loop in Slivenec,” added Šurovský.

In order for the transport company to have a sufficient number of double-sided trams in daily operation, it plans to shorten the operation of line 19 in order to save just these cars.

Until the loop in Slivenec is put into operation, line 19 in the direction from Pankrác will be terminated instead of line 7 at the Depo Hostivař terminal, on the contrary, line 7 will go via Palmovka to Lehovec. By shortening the “nineteenth line”, two-way trams will be saved, which must currently also be deployed on part of the connections of line 17 and line 5.