A new Traffic Control Centre started operation in Prague

07.04.2016

Prague, 7 April 2016 – The Railway Infrastructure administration festively completed the construction of technological premises for a new Traffic Control Centre in Prague. This project creates prerequisites for gradually introducing centralised remote traffic control within the whole Czech railway network.

”In the future, we will be controlling all main lines in our country from two central locations only. Moravia is being controlled from Přerov already now. The Traffic Control Centre in Prague will allow us to extend the network of remotely controlled line sections in the years to come up to 2,200 kilometres in Bohemia, not only on corridor lines but also on selected regional lines in the neighbourhood of Prague“, said Mr. Pavel Surý, Director General of the Railway Infrastructure Administration.

Construction of a new traffic control centre was launched within the premises at Balabenka in April 2014. A five-storey building was built within the area bordered by three railway lines; the three highest floors are reserved mostly for traffic control halls.   

Office premises necessary for railway traffic organisation and control were established on separate floors of the building. These include the infrastructure dispatching site for centralising diagnostics of individual systems for each controlled area. Further office premises were established on the technological floor, especially for maintenance of safety and communication equipment and building operating systems (air conditioning etc.).

Each dispatching hall consists of posts of the train dispatcher, the local dispatcher and the operator. Large-screen displays representing the trackage topography of the controlled area can be found at the hall front. According to the approved schedule, 100 track dispatchers and 36 traffic control operators will be carrying out operation control from Balabenka at the end of the year, working in shifts in continuous operation.

The project corresponds to the global objective of Priority Axis 1, i.e. an improvement of railway transport on the Trans-European Transport Network TEN-T. The construction’s implementation will bring better transport accessibility to passengers.

Total estimated costs of the construction designated as Traffic Control Centre Prague amounted up to 365,349,821 CZK (VAT excluded). The project was co-financed by the European Union from its Cohesion Fund under the Operational Programme Transport up to a maximum amount of 263,335,604 CZK. National financing was provided by the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure. The construction’s supplier was the company Metrostav a. s.

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