People from today travel to Brno by train again to the main station

Brno - People who arrived in Brno by train this morning are once again using the main station instead of the lower and other Brno stations after three months. The repair of the Prague viaduct, which connects the main station with Židenice, and the repair of the fourth platform has been completed. As a result, more than 50 percent of the trains that had to divert through the lower station or terminated in, for example, Královo Pole or Židenice, have returned to the key hub. The Railway Infrastructure Administration (SŽDC) spent 170 million crowns on the summer repairs.

Repairs to the Prague viaduct limited trains from the directions of Havlíčkův Brod and Česká Třebová during the summer. "The goal was not to improve technical parameters, but to extend the lifespan. We removed the tracks and gravel down to the level of the insulation, and it was necessary to renovate the upper parts of the exposed arches. We relaid the tracks, installed new overhead wiring, and laid cable routes," said SŽDC spokesperson Kateřina Šubová.

The fourth platform is now in the same state as the second and third platforms were last year. The new pavement is elevated to make it easier to board the train. The roof and information system are also new.

Today, tens of thousands of passengers who pass through the main station have returned. "About 60 percent of people were using the lower station and 40 percent the Židenice station," said Czech Railways spokeswoman Monika Bezuchová.

This year, transport companies, SŽDC, and the city could test what a more extensive closure of the main station would look like in 2018 and 2019. For 2.5 billion crowns, communication and signaling devices and also bridges over Hybešova and Křídlovická streets must be reconstructed to maintain the viability of the station regardless of its future location. Next year, trains from Třebíč and Moravské Bránice are expected to operate for six months to the lower station, and throughout 2019, it will not be possible to travel to the main station from Břeclav, Vyškov, and Slavkov. "Together with SŽDC, we are already working on detour measures so that both regional and long-distance transport are affected as little as possible," Bezuchová said. At the same time, they are preparing greater comfort for passengers at the lower station, which faced issues this year with toilets, refreshments on hot days, and also with insufficient capacity for covered standing areas during hot or rainy days.