Line #41 UsefulNotes/PragueMetro


1	->''"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.[[/note]]
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5	The [[UsefulNotes/TheCzechRepublic Czech]] capital of Prague has an extensive system of public transport. Besides busses, the world-renowned trams made by Tatra (or lately Škoda) and the relatively young commuter rail Esko, there's also the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin big ABC of public transport]] that forms its backbone, the ''Metro v Praze''.
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7	According to Website/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.
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11	[[folder:History]]
12	Plans for a subway date back to the turn of the century (back when Prague was the third city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and especially inter-war Czechoslovakia. These plans already centered around 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.
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14	The first stretch of line C from Sokolovska (today Florenc) to Kacerov was opened in 1974 and built not quite as deep as later lines with the cut-and-cover method as Prague yet had to make experiences in tunnel building. The lines A (opened 1978) and B (opened 1985) on the other hand were built with tunnel-boring machines, deep enough to have impressively long escalators and for their stations to serve a secondary role as nuclear fallout shelters in the case of WorldWarIII, just how it was supposed to be in the East Block.
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16	After UsefulNotes/HoleInFlag, several stations changed their names as the old ones reminded too much of Communism. And in 2002, the Metro was flooded in the centennial high waters that affected much of Central Europe.
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19	[[folder:Lines of Prague Metro]]
20	* Line A (green), northwest to southeast, opened 1978 from Leninova (now Dejvicka) to Namesti Miru (Peace Square), extended in its southeast to Zelivskeho (1980), Strasnicka (1987), Skalka (1990) and finally to Depo Hostivar in 2006, and in its northwest via Petrin Hill to Motol Hospital which is scheduled to open in 2014. Southeastern extensions are supposed to become bifurcations and a northeastern extension to Vaclav Havel Airport has been dropped for in favor of upgrading the existing suburban rail to Kladno.
21	* Line B (yellow), northeast to southwest, opened 1985 from Sokolovska (now Florenc) to Smichov Station, extensions followed in its southwest to Dukelska (now Nove Butovice, 1988) and Zlicin (1994) and in its northeast to CKD (now Ceskomoravska, 1990) and Cerny Most (1998), the last extension featuring two stations that were only completed later.
22	** Little fun fact: The two IKEA stores at the edges of Prague are in Zlicin and Cerny Most, the two termini of line B.
23	* Line C (red), north(-east) to south(-east), opened in 1974 from Sokolovska (now Florenc) to Kacerov, the most important lifeline of the whole system and understandably the first one to be reinstated after the 2002 floods. The first extension to Kosmonautu (now Haje, 1980) was supposed to access populous housing projects in Prague's south. All other extensions went north, however: Starting with the first underpass of the Vltava river to Holesovice Station (1984), later crossing it a second time to Ladvi (2004) and finally the extension to Letnany in 2008.
24	* Line D (blue) is under construction from Pisnice via Pankrac to Namesti Miru, later to Prague Central Station as Namesti Republiky. 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 to start in 2021 for the southern stub to Pankrac.
25	** Originally, the extension of line D due north beyond Namesti Miru would've gone northeastbound via Zizkov and Vysocany to Kbely in the northeast and is also written into land-use planning, yet it becomes more and more dubious at best.
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30	A line E (pink) was a conception for a circle line, starting clockwise from Pankrac (C/D), the first stretch going cross-river to Smichov Station. This has been ditched for a reformed line O (orange) which features a more extensive northern course and interchange at Pankrac in the south reformed in a triangular fashion. Relieving the letter E from this circle line allows its redesignation for another new line, possibly replacing line D plans in Zizkov.
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32	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.
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35	[[folder:Tramway]]
36	The first electrical streetcar was inaugurated in 1891 for the Bohemian Exhibition in the Holesovice neighborhood. The construction of metro line C meant that Wenceslas Square was torn up and its streetcar tracks weren't rebuilt to the previous standards after completion as the remote goal was ditching the tramway completely, making it lose its function as the central tramway hub that was permanently lost to Charles Square as can easily be seen in the night service network. This also meant that when the Metro was under water in 2002, rail replacement services for line C had to be done with busses whereas streetcars could fulfil that role for lines A and B. Currently (i.e. around 2020) the artificial gaps of the network around Wenceslas Square near the National Museum are in the process of being closed, but it's nowhere near close at Central Railway Station.
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38	Prague tramways was also [[OlderThanTheyThink an infamous pioneer showcase]] for a specific form of modern terrorism: On June 10th 1973, truck driver Olga Hepnarova, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical void of any political motivation and merely in for the kill]][[note]]The end of Prague Spring 1968 was still in vivid memory and Communist takeover saw its 25th anniversary, so it was a shock it wasn't a political statement.[[/note]] with a recorded history of mental illness, drove into a crowd of passengers waiting for their streetcar at Strossmayer Square station in the north of Prague [[note]]also in Holesovice in the central bend of the Vltava River, crossing of 9 tramway lines as of 2019 and not far from Metro station Vltavska nowadays[[/note]] and killed 8 people. She was subsequently executed by hanging in 1975, making her the last executed woman in the history of Czechoslovakia.
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42	[[folder:Esko (commuter rail)]]
43	Just as BritainIsOnlyLondon, Prague and its central Bohemian hinterland make up the backbone of the Czech Republic, economically, culturally and anything else which distinguishes 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]]
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45	The Czechs indeed have to make up for lost time. Mainline 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.
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47	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.
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49	Besides Prague Central Station, Masaryk Terminal is an important end point for many northern lines, other lines may end in Smichov Station in the southwest and Vrsovice Station in the southeast. Holesovice Station is actually not important at all and only gets served by a tangential line. Many lines differentiate between S-trains and R-trains, with the S-trains stopping everywhere and the R-trains skipping several stops to only serve the most important stations on their way and therefore provide faster connections.
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51	In 2017, Czech Railways presented the concept "Metro S" for consolidating suburban railway services into twin crossrail tunnels both providing common interchanges at Florenc and Opera stations in order to access all four metro lines (B/C at Florenc, A/C/D at Opera straddling between Muzeum and Praha hl. n. stations) and is supposed to be realized in the scope of two decades, relieving capacities in a way that the closure of Masarykova terminal in its state of disrepair becomes a real possibility. Tangible plans of modernizing the railway to Kladno and Vaclav Havel Airport by building a deep underground tunnel with interchanges at Hradcanska station and Veleslavin railway station (both line A) are also underway in the meantime.
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55	!!Prague Metro sub-tropes
56	* AsceticAesthetic: Very stylish Communist architecture, with lots of marble while still looking no-frills.
57	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: On maps and next to the station signs, also helping to indicate crossroads stations: the A line is green, B is yellow and C is red. An acoustic version deserves special mention as the trains on each line have their own speakers for public service announcement.
58	* DevelopmentHell: Both in the past and the future. It took at least half a century from the first serious draft to the grand opening of the current system. And Prague is at least planning to build four new metro lines until 2100.
59	* 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, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools they had the expertise after all]].
60	* 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. And it also caused a rail extension - any rail extension - to Vaclav Havel Airport to get stuck in DevelopmentHell
61	* OlderThanTheyThink: Exchange triangles [[http://www.metroweb.cz/metro/historie/mapy/mapy.htm didn't only come with the Soviets.]]
62	* RuleThirtyFour: One of the oldest entries at an adult video sharing site under the tagline "Prague" features somebody stripping while riding the subway.
63	* 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. Both, however, do reflect still existing place names on the surface (the I. P. Pavlov Square and Křižíkova Street).

Context UsefulNotes / PragueMetro