Design for the Czech Republic’s first high-speed rail station has been revealed

The design of a high-speed railway station near Prague has been unveiled. The Prague East (Praha východ) station will serve rail as a transfer point for routes from Prague to Brno and Prague to Hradec Králové, as well as to regional buses. This will be the first high-speed rail station in the Czech Republic.

The planned station, which will be in the town of Nehvizdy, will mainly serve the inhabitants of the northeastern part of the Central Bohemia region and the adjacent areas of the capital. The purpose of building this peripheral station is primarily to enable residents living in the area to take advantage of high-speed rail transport without the need to drive to the center of the Prague, the Railway Administration (SŽ) said in a press release.

The SŽ selected the winner from a total of 21 proposals from Czech and foreign architectural offices. The winning design was by Jiří Opočenský and Štěpán Valouch.

“From the beginning of September to the end of November last year, the architects, in cooperation with urban planners and transport engineers, had the opportunity to design the exact location and external and internal design of the new high-speed railway station on the Prague border, including parking spaces for 3,000 cars and connections to regional bus transport,” the SŽ stated.

The proposals were evaluated by a jury of six independent architects, two representatives of the Railway Administration and the mayor of Nehvizdy, where new station will be built.

SŽ General Director Jiří Svoboda presented the winning designs on Twitter, and added that the preparation of the first sections of the high speed rail lines were continuing intensively.

The second place went to a design by the team of Radek Lampa, Libor Hrdoušek, Max Petricov, Daria Vlasova, Erik Sovet, and Daniil Solovev. The third place was taken by a proposal from the Polish company SBS Engineering Group, designed by architect Maher Matar. In addition, the jury praised the other two proposals for their originality and quality.

The proposals examined several possible approaches, from relatively dense urban-type development to the open countryside, as well as the gradual transformation from the station in the open countryside to the center of the new city.

“The discussion on the integration of the new station would not be possible without so many different perspectives and will certainly continue at the level of the region and surrounding municipalities. The Railway Administration will present all submitted proposals in the form of an online exhibition,” the SŽ added.

Nehvizdy Mayor Jiří Poběrežský said he was pleased with the outcome.

“On the visualizations you can see what the first-of-its-kind railway station in the Czech Republic will look like. Of course, everyone has different ideas, different tastes, but I believe that you will appreciate its appearance,” he said on the town’s website and on social media.

Once conditions allow, there will be a public discussion with the architects and SŽ about the terminal.

SŽ estimates the total investment in the station in Nehvizdy at CZK 780 million. Trains could run on at speeds of up to 300 km / h. Implementation is expected to begin around 2025.