Construction Works between Lanžhot and Kúty to Limit International Trains to Slovakia and Hungary for 13 Days

Modernisation of the cross-border railway line in the section between Lanžhot and Kúty in Slovakia will limit the operation of international trains on the Prague – Brno – Bratislava – Budapest line for almost two weeks from the end of this week. In connection with the construction works, it will be necessary to reroute all long-distance trains in the section between Břeclav and Kúty to a bypass route via Hodonín and Holíč nad Moravou from 13 October, 9:15 a.m. continuously to 25 October, 4:45 p.m. In order not to transfer delays further into the Czech and Slovak inland territory due to the longer journey times, all originally direct EuroCity trains will be divided at Břeclav, and it will be necessary to change to another train for continuing to Prague or Bratislava. The journey time between the Czech and Slovak capital cities will be temporarily extended by one hour.

The bypass route via Hodonín and Holíč is about 45 – 50 minutes longer, and the railway line is moreover a single-track line in the section from Hodonín via Holíč nad Moravou to Kúty. “Since the longer journey time would have a negative impact on the timetables further in the direction to the Czech and Slovak inland territories, after mutual agreement with Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko, a.s.  and the Czech and Slovak railway infrastructure managers, i.e., Správa železnic and Železnice Slovenskej republiky, we have come to a decision that all originally direct long-distance trains will be temporarily split in Břeclav into two arms for which mutual interchange will not be ensured. The departure and arrival times of trains and interchanges in Břeclav will be adjusted, and therefore we ask passengers to pay increased attention when planning their journey to Slovakia or Hungary,” says Jiří Ješeta, Member of the Board of Directors and Deputy Director General of ČD for Passenger Transport.

Passengers travelling from Prague or Brno to Bratislava and Budapest or back during the railway line closure should not overlook the special closure timetable issued for the period from 13 to 25 October. Trains will run between Prague and Břeclav at the usual times as InterCity services. From Břeclav in the direction to Slovakia, EuroCity trains will depart about 40 minutes earlier than the normal timetable and without any connection from the train arriving from Prague. Passengers from Prague and Brno will therefore have to leave an hour earlier by railjet and change trains in Břeclav compared to the situation without the outage. In the opposite direction from Slovakia, EC trains will arrive at Břeclav about 50 minutes later. In Břeclav, passengers will change to a railjet train in the Brno and Prague direction or they will take a later IC train.

With regard to the fact that passengers travelling between the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary will use railjet trains on the section from Prague to Břeclav and back during the closure, we recommend other passengers to use IC trains for their journeys on the national Prague – Pardubice – Brno – Břeclav section and back (departures from Praha hl.n. to Břeclav at two-hour intervals from 5:45 to 17:45 hours, return journeys from Břeclav to Prague taking place every two hours as well, namely from 7:07 to 19:07 hours).

It is necessary to count on deviations for some morning and evening trains:

• At the Břeclav railway station, in the evening hours a transfer between the IC 583 train (Praha hl.n. 17:45 - Břeclav 20:52) and the EC 283 train (Břeclav 20:55 - Nové Zámky 23:09) will be ensured. For the EC 283 train it is necessary to take into account a delay of approx. 40 – 60 minutes on the part of the route after the bypass section.
• At the Hodonín railway station, a transfer between the EC 270 train (Budapest Nyugati pu. 17:29 – Hodonín 21:27) and the IC 10270 train (Hodonín 21:32 – Praha hl.n. 01:04) will be ensured.
• From 14 to 25 October, the IC 271 train will run earlier in the Brno hl.n. – Kúty section (departure from Brno hl.n. at 5:31). At the regular time, the IC 10271 train will run as a replacement train, departing from Brno hl.n. at 6:22.

The construction works carried out on the Czech-Slovak border will also affect the pair of the EC 130 / 131 Báthory trains from Terespol in Poland via Warsaw, Katowice, Ostrava, Přerov and Břeclav to Bratislava and Budapest, or back. During the outage, these trains will be diverted via Holíč nad Moravou and will not serve the Břeclav railway station in both directions.

Direct night connections will be also affected. Direct carriages from Budapest to Warsaw / Berlin or in the opposite direction will run outside the Břeclav railway station during the closure. They will depart from the Budapest Nyugati pu. railway station on the EC 270 train with the departure time at 17:29. A direct sleeper to Prague, running via Břeclav, will also be scheduled on the same service. The direct Prague – Budapest carriage will run as usual on the IC 587 / EN 477 connections, but the departure of the EN 477 train from Břeclav will be 65 minutes earlier, i.e., already at 3:50.

The outage timetable is available on this web site. Passengers can also check the current timetables by using the connection finder at www.cd.cz or in the Můj vlak (My Train) application. We would like to apologise to passengers for any complications caused by the construction works on the railway line and the train journey on the bypass route.