The Prague Transport Company (DPP) has stopped work on the preparation of the new metro station Depo Zličín at the instigation of the metropolitan administration, announced Adam Scheinherr, the chairman of the opposition Prague Sobě party and deputy mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) confirmed the news. According to Hřib, there are not enough passengers in the area for the new station to make economic and transport sense. Scheinherr, who initiated the preparation of the station in the last term as Prague’s deputy mayor, criticises the decision.
The station was to become the new terminus of the B metro and use the existing tracks leading to the Zličín depot. The Zličín depot was to be one of the few surface stations of the Prague metro and a large P+R parking house was to be built next to it.
According to Scheinherr, this would bring the metro closer to the emerging housing development and the station would also serve as a transfer point to the metro not only for drivers parking in the new P+R parking house, but also for passengers from suburban lines. The DPP had previously launched an architectural competition for the station’s design, Scheinherr said, and the company has already signed a contract with a designer and obtained a planning permit for the station in late June.
In June, the city government approved an update of the investments included in the so-called sustainable mobility plan, which no longer includes the station. According to Hrib, the reason for the decision was the lack of enough passengers. “Empty trains would mainly carry air with a significant increase in operating costs. A P+R for 600 vehicles will then generate a maximum of around 1,000 passengers, which is less than a single metro train can carry,” the deputy said.
He added that because of this, the city would not even get European subsidies to build the station. Instead of the original plan, the DPP is only modernising the depot, with the idea that the tracks will also allow the station to be built in the future. “The use of the zoning decision in the future, when this station starts to make sense, is therefore not excluded,” Hřib said. He added that in the Zličín area, the city is still negotiating the construction of a P+R car park, but at a different location.
Scheinherr criticises the decision to stop the already started preparation of the station. “The newly obtained final planning permission is a great result of the DPP’s work, unfortunately for the people of Prague with a bitter taste. It was literally enough to do nothing and Prague could start building a new station within two years. Unfortunately, the coalition of ODS and Pirates simply cannot start projects, only stop them,” he said. He also called on the coalition of Together (ODS, TOP 09, KDU-ČS), Pirates and STAN, and especially Hřibo to complete the project.
In a similar way to the proposed Depo Zličín station, the Depo Hostivař station in Strašnice was built in 2006 by DPP as part of the depot from one of its former halls. In addition to the Hostivař and Zličín depots, a third depot at Kačerov is also operating on the Prague metro.
Source: ČTK
