Trolleybuses Are Back to Prague After 50 Years

DPP has been building a new trolleybus line from Palmovka to Prosek and from Letňany to Čakovice since January 2022.

On October 15 and 16, DPP plans a weekend trial weekend operation with passengers on the Letňany – Čakovice section with a Škoda 30Tr trolleybus borrowed from Hradec Králové.

Full operation on the entire line from Palmovka to Miškovice is scheduled to begin after delivery and approval of fifteen new TNS 18 trolleybuses ordered from SOR and equipped by Cegelec.

DPP expects the first vehicle to arrive in December this year, and the remaining fourteen vehicles are scheduled to arrive next spring. After delivery, they will run in test operation, initially without passengers.

“We firmly believe that during the next year we will convert the trial operation to a live operation,” said Petr Witowski, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of DPP.

Construction in the section between Palmovka and Prosek should take less than a month. According to DPP, the total estimated cost should reach CZK 284 million.

Trolleybus line number 58 will run on the new line, replacing bus line 140.

Together with 15 kilometers of new overhead lines, the companies also built the necessary power supply and charging infrastructure.

The overhead line will cover about 50 percent of the route on which the hybrid trolleybuses will run once it is operational. These can be powered by batteries on part of the route.

According to Witowski, DPP is also working intensively on the conversion of line 119, which leads to Václav Havel Airport. “At the moment, we have 12 trolleybus lines approved and the 119 is what we are going to have in the near future. We would like to start construction in November,” he added.

The trolleybuses hit the streets of Prague in August 1936.

The first line ran from the Střešovice tram depot through Ořechovka and Hanspaulka to the Church of St. Matthias near Šarka. The last trolleybus line that went to Strahov stopped operating exactly 50 years ago, on 15 October 1972.