Žižkov Loses Its Trams Until 18 December for the Last 700 Metres of Jana Želivského

Trams stop running between Nákladové nádraží Žižkov and Ohrada at about midnight on the night of Saturday 10 October, and they do not come back until about midnight on Friday 18 December. Ten weeks, in both directions, for a stretch of track about 700 metres long between the Olšanská and Hartigova junctions. Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy announced the dates on 8 October and calls this the last major tram construction project of the year in the city.

The length is the point worth holding on to. Jana Želivského has been rebuilt in stages, and this is the northern one — the piece that was left. Jan Šurovský, deputy chairman of the DPP board and technical director for surface transport, said flatly that the work on the northern section "opravdu nelze odkládat", that it really cannot be put off, because in places the track is close to an emergency condition.

Two kinds of track, and a junction that belongs to someone else

Between Basilejské náměstí and Ohrada the line gets a fixed slab track on a concrete base with an asphalt surface. Between Nákladové nádraží Žižkov and Basilejské náměstí it gets the older arrangement, a ballast bed with rails on sleepers. Anti-vibration elements go in along the whole section, and the track spacing between Basilejské náměstí and Ohrada is widened. The platforms at Biskupcova are enlarged in both directions, and the Nákladové nádraží Žižkov platform towards Ohrada with them.

Running alongside that is the second and final phase of the rebuilt tram crossing at Olšanská, where a new central crossing and the branches from Olšanská and Vinohradská are being built. That work is not DPP's own crews but the contractors of the Olšanská–Habrová tram line, the new route towards Jarov — and it is how that line gets physically connected to the existing network. Šurovský put the sequencing plainly: modernising the northern section of Jana Želivského is possible "pouze současně s přestavbou křižovatky", only at the same time as the junction rebuild, so that tram traffic between Nákladové nádraží Žižkov and Ohrada is interrupted once rather than twice. He expects Jana Želivského and Olšanská to be passable in all directions next year without long-term closures.

Nine lines, two of them gone

Seven lines are rerouted: 5, 7, 9, 10, 11 by day, 95 and 98 at night. Lines 16 and 34 are cancelled outright for the ten weeks. Three temporary lines appear in their place — 30 from Sídliště Ďáblice via Kobylisy, Bulovka, Palmovka and Ohrada to Spojovací, 37 from Lehovec via Hloubětín, Nádraží Libeň, Palmovka and Ohrada to Spojovací, and night line 90 from Vozovna Kobylisy on the same Palmovka–Ohrada axis to Spojovací.

Replacement bus X9 runs by day between Nákladové nádraží Žižkov and Vozovna Žižkov via Biskupcova and Ohrada; X95 covers the same route overnight, and X98 runs overnight from Olšanské hřbitovy via Želivského, Nákladové nádraží Žižkov, Biskupcova and Ohrada to Vozovna Žižkov. Expats.cz, reading the DPP notice, adds that bus routes 133, 908 and 909 are affected and their Biskupcova stops moved, and that the Biskupcova arrangements change again on 9 November — so the stop a passenger finds this month is not necessarily the one that will be there in November. Car traffic stays open throughout, one lane in each direction.

DPP's release gives no cost for the works and names no contractor for this section, referring only to the builders of the Jarov line for the junction phase.

One closure, two projects

Read on its own, this is a track renewal with a long replacement-bus timetable attached. Read next to the Jarov line, it is the moment the new route stops being a separate building site. The Olšanská crossing is the join, and the only way to build a join is to stop the trams that run through it. That is the argument for ten weeks in one go rather than two shorter closures a year apart, and it is the one DPP is making.