All Prague buses, electric buses, and trolleybuses will be equipped with contactless payment terminals in the coming days. At the moment they are only available in trams and underground entrance halls. The announcement was made by Daniel Šabík, DPP’s spokesman. Prague has purchased the terminals for its entire bus fleet of about 1,200 vehicles. “In every bus, electric bus and trolleybus, the self-service terminals will be located near the second door. Passengers will be able to buy 30- or 90-minute tickets, as well as 24-hour tickets. The purchase is available with Europay, MasterCard, or Visa,” said Šabík. The terminals will also allow payments through the Apple Pay and Google Pay apps. There are also discounted fares for children and seniors for CZK 12, CZK 16, and CZK 55. After buying a ticket from the terminal, the printed ticket is already validated and therefore there is no need of its additional validation. If the transaction is denied, the payment card is not working, or the payment terminal of the dispatching device is out of order, the passenger is not entitled to free transportation. In such cases, the passenger is obliged to obtain a valid ticket in another way (e.g. by validating...
The rail link between the capital and the country’s largest airport is on its way. The construction will have a significant impact on Prague’s Holešovice district in the area of Bubny and Vltavská, which will be changed beyond recognition. The new railway “arch” will be created between Holešovice – Dejvice – Veleslavín – Ruzyně and Kladno. Project of the decade Martin Kupka (ODS), Minister of Transport, spoke of the historic moment on the occasion of the launch of the modernization of the line in Holešovice. “It is the first construction step towards building a new district, a new heart of Holešovice,” the minister said, adding that “up to 25,000 new Prague residents will live in the Buny-Zatory area”. “As soon as the high-speed rail is in operation, Prague will finally have a comfortable connection to the airport. After all, our capital and Dublin are the last capitals where people have to travel to the airport either by bus or taxi.” “This is one of the environmentally friendly modes of transport, which is preferred from the point of view of the European Union,” said Veronika Ladmanová, Head of the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic. The construction works...
A two-day Czech presidential election began on Friday, with one contender believing the vote has already been affected by a cyberattack. Opinion polls suggest a tight race between billionaire and populist ex-prime minister Andrej Babis, former army general Petr Pavel and economics professor Danuse Nerudova. Pavel said his campaign websites were difficult to access. “Russian hackers apparently don’t want voters to access my websites on this key day,” the 61-year-old former NATO general complained on Twitter. The polling stations opened at 2 p.m. and close at the same time on Saturday for 8.3 million eligible voters. If none of the eight candidates receive an absolute majority, as is expected, a run-off second round follows in two weeks. The Czech president’s powers include appointing constitutional judges and having the right to send laws back to parliament once. In a final televised debate on Thursday, the favorites exchanged blows. Babis, prime minister between 2017 and 2021, tried to portray Pavel and Nerudova as politically inexperienced. He was meanwhile accused of presiding over “chaos” during the coronavirus crisis of 2020 and 2021. The campaign was otherwise dominated by personality but issues such as high inflation and the Ukraine war were also top themes....
RegioJet, Central Europe’s largest private passenger rail operator, was awarded a single safety certificate for passenger rail operations in Germany in December 2022. Germany has thus become the next foreign market where RegioJet has been certified, alongside Slovakia, Poland and Austria. “RegioJet is certified to operate passenger rail services in Austria. As of March 2022, we started to fully operate the routes to Vienna and Budapest on this certificate with our own resources. We have now obtained the following from the European Union Railway Agency (ERA) certificate, which will allow us to develop new routes not only with a destination in Germany but also services going further into Western Europe via Germany in the next few years,” says Jakub Svoboda, Managing Director of RegioJet’s train operations. With the German certificate, RegioJet has been able to extend its Austrian certificate to include a certificate for rail freight operations. Regiojet also wants to obtain freight rail operating certificates in all neighboring countries. RegioJet a.s. is a purely Czech company and one of the largest private operators rail and bus transport in Central Europe. It was established in 2009 as a subsidiary of STUDENT AGENCY of founder Radim Jancura. Since 2011 it has been operating RegioJet regular...
Voters in the Czech Republic are heading to the polls this Friday and Saturday to choose their next president. The winner will become head of state in a country battling record inflation and bulging public finance deficits because of the war in Ukraine. Eight contenders are in the running, but three challengers appear to be in serious contention for victory. Among the favourites is former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, 68, a billionaire populist who was recently acquitted in a fraud trial. He has been plagued by his communist past as an alleged secret police agent and has also had to defend questions about his business dealings. Retired army chief Petr Pavel, and former University head Danuše Nerudová are also in the running. Pavel is campaigning on a bid to “restore order” in the EU member and offer “experienced and calm leadership”. His military career included leading the NATO Military Committee from 2015-2018. Nerudová is a career academic who rose to become the rector of Mendel University in her hometown of Brno, and has vowed to “leave the ego behind” and “communicate with all groups of people”. They’ll be hoping to galvanise the centrist voters who ousted Babiš at the last general election in 2021....
Rising energy prices, construction costs and rents, the crisis of restaurants, pressure for ESG compliance and changes in the Prague high street: these are the main trends that will affect the Czech real estate market in 2023. Substantial changes will occur both in the field of industrial and office real estate, as well as in the residential housing. According to Colliers, a leader in the provision of diversified professional services in the field of commercial real estate and investment management, the real estate market in the Czech Republic will be influenced by following 10 main trends this year: 1. Construction and financing costs will remain high It is unlikely that construction materials prices will decrease dramatically in the short term, and we assume that newly developed projects will have more difficulty proceeding without a business plan or profit revision, partially depending on the sector. A similar situation exists with the cost of financing. This can limit construction activity, especially among smaller developers where financing banks are more cautious and request greater levels of security. 2. Pressure for inflation caps and the savings struggle As Czech and Eurozone inflation spiked during 2022, many tenants reviewed their contracts and opted to add...
In 2021, the Czech Republic recorded 153,000 crimes, half the number recorded in 2011, according to data from the Czech Statistical Office (CSO).The number of people imprisoned is also decreasing, despite being among the highest in the EU as a share of the population. Czechia is set to mark the history of samizdat in the country with a special day. The government has approved an amendment tabled by a group of coalition MPs under which October 12 would become the Day of Samizdat, celebrating the production of illicit printed materials such as books and magazines under the pre-1989 Communist regime. Retail sales in the Czech Republic have fallen year-on-year for seven consecutive months. The decline slowed to 8.7 percent in November last year from 9.9 percent in October. However, sales increased only in stores selling cosmetics and toiletries. This is according to revised data from the Czech Statistical Office (CSO). In the month-on-month comparison, sales decreased by 0.3 percent Last year, Škoda Auto delivered 731,300 vehicles to customers worldwide, a 16.7 percent decrease from the previous year. cThis is due to persistent semiconductor shortages, the war in Ukraine, supply chain difficulties, rising energy and raw material prices,...
The preparations for the most beautiful endurance race are in full swing. The Prague International Marathon, which has been awarded with the prestigious World Athletic Elite Label Road Race quality label, will once again offer both the charms of the Czech capital and an unforgettable experience. The RunCzech organizing team has already prepared one gift for the competitors – all registered runners will be able to train with the Olympian Eva Vrabcova Nývltová for the 42-kilometer long course every week! “If you want to run the Prague International Marathon on May 7, which is one of the most amazing races, you need to start with the training. And that’s next week at the latest. If you train according to the plans we have been preparing, I truly believe that you will not only survive the marathon but also enjoy it,” a participant in the Olympic marathon in Rio 2016 Eva Vrabcová Nývltová says. The training opens on 17th January at 6 pm with an introductory workshop held by Martin Vrabec, the husband and coach of the famous athlete. The training itself starts at 6:30 pm. The training sessions will alternate morning and afternoon week after week. Those interested can complete...
The ninth edition of the popular Nordic film festival Scandi is already in full swing! Get an insight into Scandinavian culture through award-winning films from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland. The festival introduces the diversity and richness of contemporary Scandinavian cinema. Audiences can look forward to a varied program of films again this year, attracting preview screenings and interesting genre titles. In Prague, Scandi will take place at Edison Filmhub, where most films will screen in their original language with Czech and English subtitles, and Cinema City Slovanský dům, where most features will contain only Czech subtitles. This year’s Scandi festival will be attended by Norwegian filmmaker Erik Poppe, best known for his 2010 romance 1,000 Times Good Night, starring Juliette Binoche and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and his stark 2018 drama Utøya: July 22, about the 2011 mass murder on Norway’s Utøya island. The themes of Scandinavian films are extremely topical, reaching audiences on all continents. Scandi presents a cross-section of films and genres that define the cinematic North – from film noir through horrors to dark comedies and provocative documentaries – all in the presence of filmmakers, experts on the given topics, and other guests. The vision of the festival is to attract the audience...
December inflation brought a downward surprise and is good news for the central bank. However, the main issue at the moment is the January re-pricing and the impact of government measures on the CPI. The January number should bring inflation back to higher levels, but lower than the central bank expects Mixed picture but overall lower than expected The overall level of consumer prices remained the same in December as in November (0.0% month-on-month). On an annual basis, consumer prices rose by 15.8% in December, 0.4pp lower than in November. The average inflation rate for the full year 2022 was 15.1%. Price developments varied across the different sections of the consumer basket. The fall in fuel prices was offset by price increases, particularly in housing, energy and food. However, growth in these items was lower than we expected. Re-pricing is the main risk for January December brought a significant signal that inflation is coming under control. However, the true test of where inflation really is will not come until January. For the next figure, we see two main issues: energy prices and new year repricing. From January, the government’s measure will switch from a saving tariff to an energy price...
Former Prime Minister Andrej Babis leads a field of eight candidates hoping to succeed Milos Zeman in the largely ceremonial but prestigious post of the Czech president. Babis recently acquitted in a fraud trial, boosting his chances of winning in the first round of the presidential election in voting on Friday and Saturday. If no candidate achieves a majority, the top two finishers will face each other in a runoff in two weeks’ time. The second and final five-year term of controversy-courting Zeman expires on March 8. Zeman divided the nation with his pro-Russia stance — until the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24 — and support for closer ties with China. Zeman was the first president elected by popular vote. The previous two presidents, Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus, were elected by lawmakers. WHAT’S AT STAKE Under the Czech constitution, the president has the power to pick the prime minister, and to appoint members of the Central Bank board. The president also selects Constitutional Court judges with the approval of Parliament’s upper house. Otherwise, the president has little executive power and the country is run by the government chosen and led by the prime minister, currently the conservative...
The mayors of Warsaw, Prague, Budapest and Bratislava are visiting Kyiv, Polish television channel Polsat News said. The trip to Kyiv has been kept completely secret until now for security reasons, but the statement just issued reveals that the planned program will see the V4 mayors meet not only the mayor of Kyiv, but also senior Ukrainian officials, the mayor of Bucha and senior EU diplomats. “The purpose of the visit is to review how the V4 capitals can provide infrastructural and humanitarian assistance to the city of Kyiv, which is suffering from Russian aggression,” the office of the Budapest mayor said in a statement. According to a recent post by Karácsony, Budapest’s mayor, they travelled by train to the war-torn Ukrainian capital. The journey lasted 17 hours, he added. Here is a photo of them. “Before the war, 3.8m people lived in Kiev, while the current population stands at 3.6m (including 200,000 migrants from other regions of Ukraine). However, it is only possible to keep the city alive and functioning if critical infrastructure works. That’s why Kyiv wants to draw inspiration from the cities of the Visegrad Four, for example in transforming buildings into less energy-intensive ones. And we...
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