History UsefulNotes / PragueMetro

Plans for a subway date back to the turn of the century and especially inter-war Czechoslovakia, already featuring plans for a [[OlderThanTheyThink secant-system with three lines and three transfer stations between them]] that would later become typical for subway systems in the Communist Eastern Bloc (to the point that the transit analyst Alon Levy would later characterize the structure as a "Soviet Triangle"); the city layout just fit to it. Making it a completely underground system was a decision that was made very late, however. Before the war, it should be a combined elevated and underground system akin to [[UsefulNotes/BerlinUAndSBahn the Berlin Metro]] or, how it was intended to become when construction started in 1966, a light rail system connected to overground tram lines in the city's outskirts. But in 1967, it was decided that the digging should result in a full-fledged underground system due to Soviet influence.

Plans for a subway date back to the turn of the century and especially inter-war Czechoslovakia, already featuring plans for a [[OlderThanTheyThink secant-system with three lines and three transfer stations between them]] that would later become typical for subway systems in the Communist Eastern Block (to the point that the transit analyst Alon Levy would later characterize the structure as a "Soviet Triangle"); the city layout just fit to it. Making it a completely underground system was a decision that was made very late, however. Before the war, it should be a combined elevated and underground system akin to [[UsefulNotes/BerlinUAndSBahn the Berlin Metro]] or, how it was intended to become when construction started in 1966, a light rail system connected to overground tram lines in the city's outskirts. But in 1967, it was decided that the digging should result in a full-fledged underground system due to Soviet influence.

Plans for a subway date back to the turn of the century and especially inter-war Czechoslovakia, already featuring plans for a [[OlderThanTheyThink secant-system with three lines and three transfer stations between them]] that would later become typical for subway systems in the Communist East Block, the city layout just fit to it. Making it a completely underground system was a decision that was made very late, however. Before the war, it should be a combined elevated and underground system akin to [[UsefulNotes/BerlinUAndSBahn the Berlin Metro]] or, how it was intended to become when construction started in 1966, a light rail system connected to overground tram lines in the city's outskirts. But in 1967, it was decided that the digging should result in a full-fledged underground system due to Soviet influence.

According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, the Prague Metro is the [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative most-used subway worldwide on a per capita basis]]. Its service starts at 4:00 to 5:00 in the morning until 24:00 (Sunday to Thursday nights) or 1:00 (Friday and Saturday nights) and runs every 2-3 minutes at rush hour. Nightcrawlers will have to depend on special night-time tram lines numbered from 50 to 59, busses likewise go from 500 onwards.

A new line D (blue) is supposed to be built from Pisnice via Pankrac to Namesti Miru, likely to Prague Central Station as well. It was initially conceived in Communist times as a mere bifurcation from line C to access housing projects in the straight south of Prague, but redesigned as an own line after it became obvious that line C wouldn't cope with the added traffic. Construction is scheduled for 2017 to 2022 for the southern stub to Pankrac.

After that, extension to Central Station is very probable, but the further course is debatable and two options are actually plausible. The shorter and seemingly more elegant solution on the map would be an extension to Namesti Republiky, making line D cross with every other line and taking the triangle transfer design to the next level. The drawback is the lack of a sensible extension route due north. The alternative would be heading due east via Zizkov and Vysocany to Kbely in the northeast and is also written into land-use planning.

A line E (pink) has been conceived as a circle line, starting clockwise from Pankrac (C/D), the first stretch going cross-river to Smichov Station. Furthermore, two lines F (gray) and G (brown) are designated in the land-use plan of Prague with the prospect of being built until 2100. One could assume that a new metro line is supposed to be inaugurated every 25 years. Line F would primarily serve the left bank of the Vltava River in a strictly north-south fashion and the line G would cross Prague in an east-west manner.

* ShoutOutThemeNaming: Back in Communist times, quite a few stations weren't so much named for their surroundings as for ideological reasons. These names were largely scrapped for more neutral location names in 1990. Remnants of that era are ''I. P. Pavlova'' station (as in Pavlov reflex) and also ''Křižíkova'' after the "Czech Edison" František Křižík.

->''"Ukončete prosím výstup a nástup, dveře se zavírají."'' [[note]](Please end exit and entrance, doors will close.) It's arguably the very first complete Czech sentence many tourists hear in their lives and quite an EarWorm.[[/note]]

* EarWorm: ''"Ukončete prosím výstup a nástup, dveře se zavírají."''

* ExecutiveMeddling: By the Soviets. While its city layout predestined Prague for the secant-system that's so ubiquitous in the former East Block, the Metro was initially planned as a light rail, albeit with very long underground sections. Most striking, however, was the reinforcement of the Nusle bridge featuring among others a stretch of line C between I. P. Pavlova and Vysehrad that was only necessitated by the USSR's demand to employ heavy Soviet metro trains instead of a lighter home production made by Tatra. The basis for this was a cooperation treaty between the USSR and Czechoslovakia, [[TropesAreNotBad they had the expertise after all]].

It's still a work in progress, many of the Esko lines are still regional trains that merely got relabeled while others meet the classical S-Bahn criteria (electrified, clock-face scheduling, max. 30 minute headway) and are preferably run with blue and red ČD Class 471 trains called "CityElefant". A very important pre-condition for the introduction of Esko services was the construction of the ''Nové spojení'' (New Connection) that greatly improved connections between Prague's northern railways and Prague Central Station.

Plans for a subway date back to the turn of the century and especially inter-war Czechoslovakia, already featuring plans for a [[OlderThanTheyThink secant-system with three lines and three transfer stations between them]] that would later become typical for subway systems in the Communist East Block, the city layout just fit to it. Making it a completely underground system was a decision that was made very late, however. Before the war, it should be a combined elevated and underground system akin to Berlin or, how it was intended to become when construction started in 1966, a light rail system connected to overground tram lines in the city's outskirts. But in 1967, it was decided that the digging should result in a full-fledged underground system due to Soviet influence.

* NotInMyBackyard: It would have been so much cheaper to upgrade the existing Prague-Kladno railway to modern standards in order to access Vaclav Havel Airport, but don't tell this the residents of precincts V and VI in the northwest of Prague that were rather afraid of train noises harassing their good neighborhoods. That's why line A currently gets extended.

Just as BritainIsOnlyLondon, Prague and its central Bohemian hinterland make up the backbone of the Czech Republic, economically, culturally and anything else what makes a primate city. But only in 2007 did Prague with its environs get what other metropolitan areas in Europe take for granted, a system of commuter rail akin to the German S-Bahn or French RER systems. They labeled them ''Esko''. [[note]]Czech natives often refer to their metro lines as nouns (A-chko, Be-chko, Tse-chko etc.) instead of saying "line A/B/C" etc.[[/note]]

The Czechs indeed have to make up for lost time. Rail was a foreign body to the otherwise integrated public transport system and employed different fare systems, leading to redundant services along some rail lines. Fare integration happened in the 1990s, but the major boost only came with the 2002 flood when vital parts of the Metro were flooded [[note]]Endangered metro stations were indeed secured, but the construction site of the line C extension to Ladvi wasn't.[[/note]] and people at one time depended on the classic, albeit unsexy railway.