The Czech Railways Administration company (SŽDC) is conducting a feasibility study to determine whether to spend hundreds of millions of crowns on new rail infrastructure that would serve a planned multimodal cargo hub near the Ostrava airport. According to preliminary negotiations, the 155,000 sqm cargo hub would be operated by DB Schenker. SŽDC’s spokesman says the feasibility study is the key to financing the infrastructure work. “If the study turns out positively, it won’t be a problem to pay for the construction either from state sources or with contributions from the European Union,” Marek Illiaš told Czech Radio. The Ostrava airport is slowly adding new commercial routes to European destinations, but the city’s mayor Tomáš Macura sees cargo as its primary source of growth in the future.
