The future of passenger railway transport in the Czech is unsure according to my opinion. Considering the train and infrastructure price, it is still very lossy business, which is doted by the state and districts in the name of public citizen service. This also causes the permanent pressure for price rise and if the prices should cover the real expenses, train journey would be the same luxury as a luxury train journey, such as Orient Express, or as most luxury limousine drive, such as Rolls-Royce or Bentley. From this point of view, everyone of us who goes by train, enjoys the same luxury, as in the described limousine with a personal driver. Moreover, it is still more visible the withdrawal of regional railway transport, which cannot be as flexible and competitive as other means of public transport, such as buses. Contrary, in western European countries regional railway transport rises, because it offers high comfort and their market is also overwhelmed by car transport. We cannot expect this development here. The only chance is in the distance and international links, which can offer speed higher that highway and lead a direction, which is difficult for cars or does not offer roads of good quality.

From the distance lines point of view is the connection of Moravia with Prague an excellent example. While on the Ostrava-Olomouc-Prague line is the railway transport used much, line Brno-Prague has been in fact given up by the Czech Railways except of the international fast trains SC Pendolino. Ostrava is not connected with Prague by any reasonable high speed road communication and the build is still in the concept phase. It is also not excluded, that it is meant to be delayed because of the railway lobby. The Brno-Prague line is in a completely different situation, because there is the D1 highway, which is criticised but offers good oportunities for individual transport as well as for bus companies.

But back to the new Czech Railways prices. The kilometer ranges are left away, and the new price lists comes out of distances in kilometers and to each assigns the price. The change is rather cosmetic, but for the company is probably better. But the price rise is mainly in the customer price, which compared to current 30% reduction offers only 25% reduction against the ordinary price. Also the Kilometer bank 2000 km is going to be more expensive from 1400 CZK to 1600 CZK. But the IC and EC train surcharge has been left away, because these trains are going to be doted by the state again and not by the ČD as currently. The new prices are valid from 9th December 2007. There are more changes, of course, the details can be found on the official pages, see the link below.