The main railway station in Prague has last year produced CZK 48m in profit for Grandi Stazioni, the Italian company that’s been renovating and operating the station since 2006. The result represented an increase of 31 percent y-o-y compared to 2012, which CEO Andrea Odoardi attributed to rising occupancy and reduced costs. However, he told the server e15 that it wants some leniency on the timing of planned investments. Under the original agreement under which Grandi Stazioni gets the right to operate the station for 30 years, it was supposed to complete reconstruction work on the building by 2016.
So far, the company has invested roughly CZK 1bn, but further work is necessary to rebuild the historic Fantova building that sits above the modern passenger terminal. Odoardi is asking that completion of this work be pushed back to 2019 while the investor focuses on improving passenger services and carrying out roof and facade repairs. Czech Railways is insisting that the original schedule be adhered to.
