"Finally!": Kraushaar in favor of speeding up the railroad line to Prague

Saxon Infrastructure Minister Regina Kraushaar (CDU) has called on the Bundestag to swiftly deal with the construction of the new railroad line from Dresden to Prague. "The fact that the Federal Ministry of Transport has now handed over the documents to the Bundestag is a very important signal to the people in Saxony's Elbe Valley and to our Czech neighbors," she told the German Press Agency in Dresden. Now the next steps must follow as quickly as possible.

Bundestag should secure reliable funding

"I ask the members of the German Bundestag to quickly make the necessary referrals and then secure reliable funding in the federal budget," emphasized Kraushaar. On Thursday evening, the Federal Ministry of Transport announced that the planning documents had been handed over to the Bundestag. "I almost want to exclaim: At last!", Kraushaar commented on the announcement.

With swift treatment, time window for EU funding remains open

According to Kraushaar, there is a good reason to be quick now. "If the budget funds for the next planning steps are made available now, the window of opportunity for EU funding and joint implementation with the Czech Republic will remain open." Saxony has been campaigning for the project together with its Czech neighbors for years.

Dresden-Prague railroad line closes gap from Berlin to Vienna

"This railroad line is not only important for Saxony and the Czech Republic, it is also of the utmost relevance for Germany and Europe: it closes a central gap in the international rail corridor between Berlin, Prague and Vienna and thus strengthens the north-south axis in the trans-European transport network," emphasized the Minister.

30-kilometre tunnel at the heart of the project

The project includes a 30-kilometre tunnel through the Eastern Ore Mountains and aims to reduce the travel time between the two cities from the current 2.5 hours to one hour. The project is a high priority for Saxony. The sluggish expansion of rail transport in eastern Germany has been repeatedly lamented there.

New railroad line to eliminate bottleneck and avoid noise

The new railroad line is intended to eliminate the bottleneck currently associated with the route through the narrow Elbe Valley between Dresden and the Czech city of Ústí nad Labem. At the same time, it should relieve the local population from traffic noise.

The parliamentary referral gives the Bundestag an additional say in the implementation of expansion and new construction projects in the rail requirements plan and is intended for projects that have completed the so-called basic evaluation and preliminary planning, according to the Federal Ministry of Transport. If the Bundestag approves the continuation of the project, the draft state treaty with the Czech Republic could be signed "after clarification of the budgetary requirements".