Czechia in 2025: any tips/recommendations?

[30907]

I'm considering making my way east/north east from Prague, to this sort of area, then heading south in a sort of arc mostly using minor lines to end up at Veselí nad Lužnicí where I can join the line that goes to Ceske Budejovice and then into Austria, to Linz.

You may already know that Brno-Jihlava-Veseli-CB is hauled, with diesel on the first leg - though I think they are using a/c stock now.

 

[BRX]

You may already know that Brno-Jihlava-Veseli-CB is hauled, with diesel on the first leg - though I think they are using a/c stock now.

It looks like this is currently interrupted by a rail replacement bus in the middle, unfortunately.

 

[Segedunum]

It looks like this is currently interrupted by a rail replacement bus in the middle, unfortunately.

Interrupted between Jihlava and Horní Cerekev until the end of the month.

 

[BRX]

Any tips for good freight-watching locations in Czechia?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Aug 2025 ==

So this is the latest version of my plan:

Arrive off the sleeper in Prague, and head eastwards a little, perhaps to Poricany or Nymburk hlavni nadrazi and overnight somewhere there.

Then, do the trip up to Turnov hopefully behind a centre-cab diesel.

I was thinking that I would then do the trip up to Trutnov & back but actually I think I'll instead do the line from Zabreh up to Jesenik, which based on my searches on vagonweb is also diesel loco-hauled. It looks like that takes me into slightly more interesting/mountainous territory but is also on the way to the Osoblaha line.

I'll maybe overnight somewhere near Jesenik and then do the line to Osoblaha and back, and then make my way further eastwards to Ostrava.

I don't know a lot about Ostrava but it looks like quite an industrial centre which appeals to me, and I haven't been to this eastern part of Czechia before. May spend a night or two there and have a look around. Any suggestions for things worth seeing around there are welcome.

Then, I'll head back southwest and get myself to Linz possibly via Vienna or possibly staying within Czechia. I might take the opportunity to do the Brno - Ceske Budejovice trip, which I think will be running without bus replacement interruption by then.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Aug 2025 ==

Interrupted between Jihlava and Horní Cerekev until the end of the month.

Did you mean the end of August, or September here @rg177 ?

(It looks to me like it's still interrupted during the first week of September, at least according to the CD journey planner)

 

[Segedunum]

Did you mean the end of August, or September here @rg177 ?

(It looks to me like it's still interrupted during the first week of September, at least according to the CD journey planner)

I meant August but it's very possible they've either extended the works or have another phase of works following immediately after.

 

[BRX]

I meant August but it's very possible they've either extended the works or have another phase of works following immediately after.

Thanks. Seems the gap is between Třebíč and Batelov, which means about an hour on a bus replacement.

 

[30907]

Thanks. Seems the gap is between Třebíč and Batelov, which means about an hour on a bus replacement.

CD have it closed till mid December now. Trebic to Jihlava is closed, but the RRB goes direct to Batelov avoiding Jihlava. You can of course do Brno-H Brod-Jihlava, but that misses the diesel bit.

 

[TRXsouth]

BRX -
The September issue of ‘Today’s Railways Europe’ should be helpful to you.
With a CD Vectron on the front cover, there is a nine page Czech Republic feature ‘Czech-mate: an enthusiast’s guide to the Czech rail scene.’ Copiously illustrated, it provides a detailed overview of the country’s traction scene, plus it is written by Robert Pritchard, author of the magazine’s publisher Platform 5’s new ‘Czech & Slovak European Handbook’ - the magazine has a book discount offer.

I wish P5 would produce a similar book and TRE feature for Poland…..

 

[timstours]

Yes one of the best articles of recent times ,Well done Robert ,2 things i would like to know ,
does anybody know which Praha to Cercany and vv via the scenic routes are loco hauled at weekends please ,I was thinking of doing a round trip after the Sept 21st tram parade ,going to cercany direct S9 and return via the scenic route perhaps with a goggle.
the other thing was i remember some spreadsheet's or website(Not vagonweb} with the loco or units numbers on a given day being published.

 

[43096]

Yes one of the best articles of recent times ,Well done Robert ,2 things i would like to know ,
does anybody know which Praha to Cercany and vv via the scenic routes are loco hauled at weekends please ,I was thinking of doing a round trip after the Sept 21st tram parade ,going to cercany direct S9 and return via the scenic route perhaps with a goggle.
the other thing was i remember some spreadsheet's or website(Not vagonweb} with the loco or units numbers on a given day being published.

This website is your friend: https://www.55p.cz/cz.html

It relies on people reporting observations: please do so to help others.

 

[timstours]

Thank you very much for the link ,superb

 

[BRX]

These all-day tickets (which can be all-country or just for certain regions)

Celodenní jízdenka | České dráhy

Train Tickets - Occasional Travelling around region | České dráhy

....am I right to think that the CD ticket app doesn't offer me one of these if I enquire about a journey that's entirely within one of the regions? I've tested a couple of routes and it looks like it will offer me single tickets even if the price is higher than the relevant regional all-day pass is.

Also do they work on all trains or only ones operated by CD?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Aug 2025 ==

And it seems there are also integrated regional passes:

Jízdenky ČD pro občasné cestování po regionu | České dráhy

These cover buses and trams etc too - is that right? It doesn't look like I can buy these on the CD app - are they generally available at stations? The one I'm most likely to be interested in is for the area around Ostrava (ODIS?)

 

[nwales58]

And it seems there are also integrated regional passes:

Jízdenky ČD pro občasné cestování po regionu | České dráhy

These cover buses and trams etc too - is that right? It doesn't look like I can buy these on the CD app - are they generally available at stations? The one I'm most likely to be interested in is for the area around Ostrava (ODIS?)

I was in Ostrava last year, my memory may not be 100%.

The Czech regional integrated tariff systems vary in what tickets are actually offered at regional level.

Moravskoslezsky, ODIS (by the way the web site is kodis.cz, not odis.cz) I think only offer 7+ day season tickets for the whole region, despite the web page you referenced found stating CD accept 24 hour tickets.

My recollection is that multi-operator multi-modal single tickets are zonal, obviously only valid along routes between the two zones purchased.

24 hour and 3 day tickets are available for the Ostrava XXL area which includes Bohumin.

See ODIS tariff page, in English but linked documents are Czech:

CPP and odis tariff | Coordinator ODIS s.r.o.

www.kodis.cz

This map shows the zonal system, the bright red boundary surrounding blue zones is Ostrava XXL:

https://kodis-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Priloha_tarifu_c_2_Tarifni_mapa_ODIS_70affce48e.pdf

The fares table is in Czech

https://kodis-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Priloha_tarifu_c_1_Soubor_ceniku_19ec8d8e8a.pdf

at the bottom you will see a 7 day season for ODIS costs CZK 858 bought online otherwise 987. The only mention of 24h tickets there is for Ostrava XXL as far as I can see.

I used the DPO (Ostrava city transport operator) app to pay for a 3 day Ostrava XXL ticket. Within Ostrava you can use contactless with a daily cap at the 24 hour fare (so sometimes it might be better to buy the 24h).

 

[BRX]

I was in Ostrava last year, my memory may not be 100%.

The Czech regional integrated tariff systems vary in what tickets are actually offered at regional level.

Moravskoslezsky, ODIS (by the way the web site is kodis.cz, not odis.cz) I think only offer 7+ day season tickets for the whole region, despite the web page you referenced found stating CD accept 24 hour tickets.

My recollection is that multi-operator multi-modal single tickets are zonal, obviously only valid along routes between the two zones purchased.

24 hour and 3 day tickets are available for the Ostrava XXL area which includes Bohumin.

See ODIS tariff page, in English but linked documents are Czech:

CPP and odis tariff | Coordinator ODIS s.r.o.

www.kodis.cz

This map shows the zonal system, the bright red boundary surrounding blue zones is Ostrava XXL:

https://kodis-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Priloha_tarifu_c_2_Tarifni_mapa_ODIS_70affce48e.pdf

The fares table is in Czech

https://kodis-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Priloha_tarifu_c_1_Soubor_ceniku_19ec8d8e8a.pdf

at the bottom you will see a 7 day season for ODIS costs CZK 858 bought online otherwise 987. The only mention of 24h tickets there is for Ostrava XXL as far as I can see.

I used the DPO (Ostrava city transport operator) app to pay for a 3 day Ostrava XXL ticket. Within Ostrava you can use contactless with a daily cap at the 24 hour fare (so sometimes it might be better to buy the 24h).

Thanks, this is very helpful.

Any particular recommendations in Ostrava?

 

[The exile]

These all-day tickets (which can be all-country or just for certain regions)

Celodenní jízdenka | České dráhy

Also do they work on all trains or only ones operated by CD?

And it seems there are also integrated regional passes:

Jízdenky ČD pro občasné cestování po regionu | České dráhy

These cover buses and trams etc too - is that right? It doesn't look like I can buy these on the CD app - are they generally available at stations? The one I'm most likely to be interested in is for the area around Ostrava (ODIS?)

The ones linked under the "Celodenni jizdenka" link above (your first one) are only valid on CD trains - which means they are becoming less and less useful as time goes by.

The integrated regional passes - valid in all public transport - are not available on the CD site / app, but are available via the individual transport authority's apps. I used the South Moravian (ie Brno and surrounding area) one last year without any problems - though the original mobile purchase was a bit hair raising as there was no English version. I've just bought a DUK (Usti nad Labem) day ticket for next week (full English version available - day ticket is about £7.50) and hope that it will just auto activate at the beginning of the validity period (which is interestingly 23.57 of the day before till 04.00 of the day after) - and getting the PID (Prague) ones appears to be equally straightforward. I assume they are also available at station ticket offices in the relevant regions but I shall be entering each "on the fly" so need a mobile ticket for the first day of each.

 

[BRX]

Thanks. Since messing a bit with the app I've realised it will offer me the all day passes if the journey I'm enquiring about fits within one.

Working out the extent of the regional CD day tickets is a bit of a project - but there are downloadable maps buried somewhere in one of the czech language links above. The regions overlap slightly in some places.

 

[Whisky Papa]

The ones linked under the "Celodenni jizdenka" link above (your first one) are only valid on CD trains - which means they are becoming less and less useful as time goes by.

The integrated regional passes - valid in all public transport - are not available on the CD site / app, but are available via the individual transport authority's apps. I used the South Moravian (ie Brno and surrounding area) one last year without any problems - though the original mobile purchase was a bit hair raising as there was no English version. I've just bought a DUK (Usti nad Labem) day ticket for next week (full English version available - day ticket is about £7.50) and hope that it will just auto activate at the beginning of the validity period (which is interestingly 23.57 of the day before till 04.00 of the day after) - and getting the PID (Prague) ones appears to be equally straightforward. I assume they are also available at station ticket offices in the relevant regions but I shall be entering each "on the fly" so need a mobile ticket for the first day of each.

I've not yet used the predetermined activation time on the PID Litačka app, I've only ever activated tickets at the time of use. However, as I wrote on another thread, I got the impression that to do so required an internet connection, as I couldn't do it after arrival at Prague airport because I hadn't logged onto the airport wifi and my phone hadn't connected to data roaming.

So, can anyone confirm if a data connection is required for this sort of app, either for activating tickets on the spot or for the activation of tickets that have been bought with a pre-set start time?

 

[BRX]

I was in Ostrava last year, my memory may not be 100%.

The Czech regional integrated tariff systems vary in what tickets are actually offered at regional level.

Moravskoslezsky, ODIS (by the way the web site is kodis.cz, not odis.cz) I think only offer 7+ day season tickets for the whole region, despite the web page you referenced found stating CD accept 24 hour tickets.

My recollection is that multi-operator multi-modal single tickets are zonal, obviously only valid along routes between the two zones purchased.

24 hour and 3 day tickets are available for the Ostrava XXL area which includes Bohumin.

See ODIS tariff page, in English but linked documents are Czech:

CPP and odis tariff | Coordinator ODIS s.r.o.

www.kodis.cz

This map shows the zonal system, the bright red boundary surrounding blue zones is Ostrava XXL:

https://kodis-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Priloha_tarifu_c_2_Tarifni_mapa_ODIS_70affce48e.pdf

The fares table is in Czech

https://kodis-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Priloha_tarifu_c_1_Soubor_ceniku_19ec8d8e8a.pdf

at the bottom you will see a 7 day season for ODIS costs CZK 858 bought online otherwise 987. The only mention of 24h tickets there is for Ostrava XXL as far as I can see.

I used the DPO (Ostrava city transport operator) app to pay for a 3 day Ostrava XXL ticket. Within Ostrava you can use contactless with a daily cap at the 24 hour fare (so sometimes it might be better to buy the 24h).

I downloaded the ODIS app (fairly straightforward, just need to sign up with email) and on there you can buy the Ostrava XXL 24hr or 3 day tickets.
You can also get a whole region one - see screenshot below - which is just 200czk for 24hrs. If I've understood everything correctly that ought to get you from Ostrava all the way to Osoblaha and back...