The ice hockey rush will break out already this Friday. After nine years, the Czech Republic will once again host the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. The railway undertaking “České dráhy”, which is the official carrier of this ice hockey championship, will provide transport services for ice hockey teams, referees, organisers as well as fans between the venues of matches in Prague and Ostrava during the championship.
“České dráhy is a proud partner of Czech sportspersons and fans. Already in the past, we have cooperated to provide transport services for ice hockey players and fans during the previous World Championships and the same is true this year as well. Starting on Friday, we will dispatch seven pairs of extraordinary SC Pendolino services. There is a great demand for these services among the fans, and except for a few dozen seats, we are already reporting a sell-out state, i.e. more than 4,600 passengers,” says Michal Krapinec, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of České dráhy.
The SC Pendolino and InterCity trains make the journey between the main stations in Prague and Ostrava in 3 hours and 12 minutes and offer a high level of travel comfort. Nevertheless, ice hockey fans can also use regular services provided by České dráhy. Passengers can travel by train directly to the Prague’s O2 Arena, which is situated just a 10-minute walk from the Praha Libeň railway station. Most trains from the eastern part of the country stop there, e.g. from Ostrava, Moravian Wallachia, Zlín or South Moravia. The trains of the S1 and S7 regional lines from the main and Masaryk railway stations stop there two.
Passengers can also travel comfortably by train from various parts of the country to the matches held in the Ostrava’s Ostravar Arena. The Ostrava-Vítkovice railway station is situated about a 20-minute walk from the arena and is served by the regular S9 line Ostrava-Svinov – Havířov – Český Těšín train services.
During the ice hockey match days, increased occupancy can be expected on selected long-distance line services, and therefore we recommend monitoring the expected occupancy of the selected line. “Passengers can easily find out the occupancy of their chosen train connection in the E-shop at www.cd.cz thanks to the so-called semaphore function, which will show them how full their train should be and, if necessary, will recommend them to purchase a seat reservation,” says Mr. Krapinec, reminding a useful innovation introduced in the ČD E-shop.
The buses of the ČD Bus subsidiary will take ice hockey players directly to the arenas
Besides transporting fans and teams by train, České dráhy will also provide transfers of ice hockey players between hotels, stadiums and train stations in Prague and Ostrava through its subsidiary ČD Bus and its modern Iveco buses.
For more than three weeks now, passengers have been able to see a specially coated Siemens Vectron locomotive in service, bearing the championship logo and the main motto “Heart of the Game” on its surface.
Author: Tiskové oddělení Českých drah
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