Petr Šlegr spoke on Radio Czechia’s programme on 21 April 2010 in connection with the problems of air transport and the necessity to develop high speed railways on the European scale, but especially, to finally start building it in the Czech republic.
Excerpt from the podcast:
Radio Speaker: What is the state of the European corridors, where is there the largest potential for construction of next modern high speed railways?
PŠ: Currently, for instance, the important Eastern Connection is being built, running from Strasbourg, France via Stuttgart and Vienna to Bratislava, Slovakia. By the way, that means that Slovakia will have access to the high speed rail network sooner than Czech republic will. Further, the Poles project, very generously, a high speed connection of Warsaw and Wroclaw with a second branch to Poznan and Berlin built for 350 kmph speed. In Germany, a new line from Nuremberg to Berlin is being constructed, which – albeit bypassing Czech republic adds 150 kilometers of route – will shorten the time from Vienna to Berlin for two hours in comparison with riding through us. That is also a reason for us to think about it.
Radio Speaker: And if we do think about it, the Czech republic will remain aside all these plans and new corridors and new high speed routes.
PŠ: Well we have to believe otherwise, that we really will think about it. Sometimes it is said about some people that they are like generals preparing for a past battle, but I think the railwaymen prepare for the one-before-the-last war. There are still efforts to unnecessarily reduce the speed limit on some newly reconstructed corridors, which are a bit out of reality, or – if I may divert from high speed railways – for instance the Prague to Kladno line is according to some representatives supposed to be modernised as a single-track route, which is like nowadays starting to talk about returning to horse carriages.
The whole podcast is available at http://media.rozhlas.cz/_audio/02033930.mp3
