Transit projects for 2023: Trams on Wenceslas Square and an airport trolleybus

The Prague Transport Company (DPP) will implement several big projects next year, including the start of construction on the tram line in the upper part of Wenceslas Square and on the second section of metro line D.

The DPP will also start building a trolleybus line to the airport and enable contactless ticket purchases on all buses, DPP director Petr Witowski told ČTK.

There is some bad news for people in the Vinohrady area: the náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad metro stop will be closed for most of the year.

The exact date for the start of construction works on the upper part of Wenceslas Square has not been set yet, as a tender is underway to select a contractor. Trams last ran there until 1980, but the new layout will be different than the previous one. The tracks will be on the sides of the square and a promenade will be created in the middle. The new tracks will connect with the existing tracks behind the National Museum and with the tracks on Vodičkova and Jindřiška.

Deputy Mayor Adam Scheinherr previously said the estimated cost of building the tracks and improving the upper part of the square is CZK 1.25 billion. The renovations of the square were first proposed in the 1990s and designs were made in 2005, but the project faced numerous delays.

DPP started building the first section of metro line D between Pankrác and Olbrachtova station in Prague 4 at the end of April this year. At this moment, it has completed about a kilometer of tunnels and recently started excavating the Olbrachtova station, and planning the section from Olbrachtova to Nové Dvory.

"I believe that next autumn we will be able to start the construction of the second section of metro D," Witowski previously said when construction on the first section began. The expected price of the section is approximately CZK 24.6 billion; the final price will be determined by tender.

The company will start construction of the trolleybus line from Veleslavín to the Václav Havel Airport Prague, which the electrified line number 119 will soon cover. The construction will cost CZK 354.5 million.

At the beginning of next year, DPP would also like to start contactless payment on all buses. This should make buying tickets very convenient.

Also next year, the escalators at the náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad station will be replaced. The station should close on Jan. 14, 2023, and stay closed for 10 months. Once it reopens, it will be a barrier-free station with a new elevator. The square itself will be renovated at the same time in a separate but parallel project.

Tram tracks will be built or extended in the city’s outlying areas. DPP plans to build the second part of the line to Slivenec for CZK 233 million that will connect to the existing section between Barrandov and Holyně.

Other projects include the completion of new tram tracks from Divoká Šárka to the Dědina housing estate and from Modřany to Libuš.

Next year, DPP wants to select a supplier of new cable cars for Petřín in a tender, complete a tender for the purchase of up to 140 hybrid articulated buses, take over 15 new trolleybuses and put them into operation on the first trolleybus line between Letňany and Čakovec, start testing a hydrogen bus, and complete the renovation of the tram line between Palmovka and Ohrada.