Prague Public Transport unveils new unified color scheme for trams, buses, and trains

The look of vehicles throughout Prague’s public transportation fleet will begin to change in the near future, as Prague Integrated Transport (PID) announced the winner of a recent design competition earlier today.

The new design, approved by Prague officials and unveiled today, will begin to appear on new vehicles that go into the city’s fleet in Prague and the Central Bohemian region.

It will eventually make its way to existing vehicles as they undergo maintenance or other repairs.

In total, it will take 15 years to repaint all the existing trams, buses, and trains in Prague’s fleet.

The city justified the change given that public transportation services will gradually be expanded throughout the Central Bohemian Region, and the unified color scheme makes it immediately apparent to riders which vehicles can be ridden with a Prague Integrated Transport ticket.

“This is just one of many projects aimed at a more modern and attractive form of public transport,” Prague Deputy Mayor Adam Scheinherr told journalists at a press conference this afternoon.

“Currently, the PID system is being extended to the entire territory of the Central Bohemian Region, and therefore the time is right to modernize and unify the visual presentation of the entire system so that a user can clearly identify at first glance [which vehicle can be ridden] with a PID ticket.”

“Until now, the design of transport vehicles was solved ad hoc during their acquisition and there was no unified solution – it is not only the external design, but also a uniform system of pictograms inside the cars.”

In a press release, the City of Prague said that it chose the new design for its clarity and modernness, which also took inspiration from the design of the city’s classic Tatra T3 trams.

“In addition, the chosen shade of gray will support the impression of generally cleaner vehicles; the pollution caused by normal operation was more noticeable on the white paints used until now,” ROPID director Petr Tomčík stated.

“A more significant use of the new PID logo will strengthen awareness of the uniformity of the system across all modes of transport.”