České dráhy Sign Prague's 30-Year Suburban Rail Contract Without a Contract for the Trains

The contract that decides who runs Prague's busiest suburban trains until the end of the 2050s was signed on Friday 16 October. The Central Bohemian Region, the City of Prague and České dráhy put their names to a thirty-year deal worth 165 billion crowns, under which ČD will keep operating the main electrified lines of the Prague Integrated Transport (PID) network from 2030, on new trains.

What ČD does not yet have is the trains. It signed, as Zdopravy.cz put it, "with partial risk": its own tender for the vehicles is still before the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS), and in the week of the signing the dispute there grew rather than shrank.

What was signed

ČD beat RegioJet in the tender, according to Zdopravy.cz. The regions' joint press release, published by PID, gives the history: preparation began in 2022, the competition itself opened in February 2025 after preliminary market consultations, and final bids came in this June. Around seventy people worked on it, among them advisers from Transparency International, law firms, auditors and the two transport organisers, IDSK for Central Bohemia and ROPID for Prague.

The new units are to seat at least 380 each and will gradually replace part of the ageing CityElefant fleet. The release promises real-time occupancy shown per carriage, a bicycle area that can be resized with the season, wireless phone charging and better mobile signal, plus an airport variant with more luggage space. Passengers should ride the first of them during 2030.

On the number of trains the two accounts differ, and it is worth being precise. The release speaks of "more than sixty" units. ČD's deputy chairman Jiří Ješeta, quoted in the same release, said the carrier will supply "up to 60 new units" for the base scope of service, with up to 133 running in future. Zdopravy.cz has "at least 60". We report the figures as each party gave them.

The trains go first to Beroun and Kolín, according to Zdopravy.cz, then towards Kladno and the airport, and to Mladá Boleslav via Lysá nad Labem — if, the outlet adds, that section is ever built. The release also says battery units are to run from 2030 on the Posázavský pacifik and, at weekends, on the planned T41 line from Prague to Kutná Hora.

"It was the first ever public tender for a rail operator in the Central Bohemian Region and by far the largest in the whole of the Czech Republic."

— Petra Pecková, Governor of the Central Bohemian Region

Pecková put last year's ridership on PID trains in the region at 202,000 people a day.

The trains are still in dispute

The trains themselves are a separate contract between ČD and a manufacturer, worth more than 36 billion crowns before servicing. Škoda Group won it with 36.387 billion against Stadler's 38.660 billion, Zdopravy.cz established, and offered a 180-month warranty where other bidders offered two to three years.

On Thursday 15 October, the day before the signing, ÚOHS rejected Stadler's first complaint, which had challenged the selection and what it called an abnormally low price. The decision is not final, and a preliminary measure barring ČD from signing with Škoda remains in force.

The same day ÚOHS confirmed a second case. Stadler now alleges a possible material change to Škoda's bid after the deadline.

"I can confirm that this week we received a further petition from Stadler pointing to a possible material change to the selected supplier's bid. First-instance administrative proceedings have been opened in the matter."

— Martin Švanda, ÚOHS spokesman

ČD told Zdopravy.cz that after final bids it held talks with Škoda to clarify the lowest-priced offer, which it says the procurement law provides for, and that these concerned "exclusively technical details". Neither Stadler nor Škoda commented.

Why it matters

The order of events is the story. Prague and Central Bohemia have now committed thirty years of suburban rail to an operator whose fleet cannot yet be ordered. Zdopravy.cz notes that the new case could delay the manufacturing contract and with it deliveries; the 2030 date in the release assumes it does not. ČD's general director Lenka Hamplová was absent from the ceremony — the carrier was represented by Ješeta and Lukáš Svoboda, the outlet reports.

For Prague the operating contract was the half that needed politicians, and it is done. The half that puts trains on the Beroun and Kolín lines now depends on a competition case the city is not a party to.