Libuš Station Has a Building Permit. Whether Metro D Reaches It in 2032 Turns on Mid-2028

Dopravní podnik hl. m. Prahy has obtained a building permit for Libuš station on metro line D. The permit is not yet final — nepravomocné, in the Czech term, meaning the appeal period has not run out or an appeal is pending. DPP spokesman Daniel Šabík confirmed it to ČTK; the agency's report was carried by ČT24 on 21 September.

Why a permit is the thing that matters here

The station is not the news so much as the procedure is. According to Šabík, a final permit for Libuš is the precondition for DPP to be able to go out and look for a construction firm at all. Until it has one, there is no tender; until there is a tender, there is no contractor; and the tender is where line D has lost the most time so far.

That is not a hypothetical. The second section of the line, between Ryšánka and Nové Dvory, was held up by more than two years by proceedings at the antimonopoly office over the choice of contractor. DPP only started work on it this June, and that section includes the tunnelling that runs all the way through to Písnice.

The date to watch is mid-2028

Šabík set out the arithmetic plainly. If DPP manages to start building Libuš station by the middle of 2028, then in 2032 the first part of line D could begin running not to Nové Dvory but on to Libuš. Miss that window and the line opens one station short.

Everything else on the timetable is unchanged. The first section, Pankrác to Ryšánka, has been under construction since 2022. Line D as a whole is to link Náměstí Míru with Písnice and is intended to take pressure off traffic in the south of the city; the first section is scheduled to start carrying passengers in 2032, and the full route from Náměstí Míru to Písnice in 2036. Beyond that, the city has a longer-term ambition to extend the line to Náměstí Republiky.

The trains will run without drivers. DPP is currently tendering for them, and the director of the company, Ladislav Urbánek, has previously said the result should be known in 2028 — the same year as the Libuš deadline. The city also plans to put automatic trainsets on line C.

Names, settled and unsettled

Prague's councillors recently approved the station names for the line, changing two of the working titles: Olbrachtova became Ryšánka, and Náměstí Bratří Synků became Nusle. They turned down three names put forward by the toponymic commission — Tempo for Nové Dvory, Sídliště Písnice in place of Písnice, and Prameny for Depo Písnice. The final name of the station currently known as Depo Písnice has yet to be decided.

Libuš, at least, keeps its name, and now has a permit to go with it. What it does not yet have is a builder, and the clock on that started running with this decision rather than ending with it.