A panoramic Swiss train will ride on Czech railways this summer

Some spectacular views of the Czech countryside are coming to areas of Moravia this summer, as a panoramic Swiss train will hit the rails from early June. Czech Railways announced last year that they had acquired the train cars from Swiss Federal Railways, and travel site Zdopravy.cz has revealed that tickets are now on sale.

The train will officially launch from June 11, with travel between Graz in Austria and Přemyšl in southeastern Poland. In the Czech Republic, the train will run between Břeclav in South Moravia and Bohumín in Moravia-Silesia.

Tickets for the journey are now available for purchase through the Czech Railways e-shop. A ride between the Czech locations in Břeclav and Bohumín currently runs from CZK 421 in the first-class cabin; according to available information, some of the panoramic cars should also be utilized as second-class cabins.

The unique train cars were purchased by Swiss Federal Railways in the early 1990s, and ran as first-class cabins throughout locations in Switzerland and neighboring countries on the Gotthard Panorama Express line.

The cars include partially panoramic windows that extend up into the ceiling, which allow more light to enter the train and provide for some unique sightseeing opportunities.

"Swiss Federal Railways bought them for attractive travel through Switzerland or in the Rhine Valley from Switzerland to northern Europe," says Petr Šťáhlavský, a spokesman for Czech Railways.

"They also traveled on connections to Nice or Vienna, and since 2016 they have been traveling to Graz, Austria. Swiss Federal Railways bought 12 of them in 1991/1992."

In the Czech Republic, the new panoramic train cars will run as part of the EC 104 line, which departs from Břeclav at 9:10 a.m. in the morning, and on the EC 105 line, which returns from Bohumín at 4:42 p.m. in the afternoon.

The Swiss trains were originally unveiled by Czech Railways last year during the Connecting Europe Express event, which highlighted sustainable and environmentally friendly train travel. However, they were not put into use until now.

The new trains will also mark the first time in more than two decades that a Swiss train has ridden on Czech railways. Swiss trains were last deployed in the country on the EC Albert Einstein line, which ran between Prague and Zurich until it was disbanded in 2001.