It wasn't until 2026 that they started talking about them again. Mainly thanks to the experiment of the technology company AŽD with the KT8D5 tram, which ran on batteries for the first time on a local train to Kopidlno in East Bohemia on May 14.
At the same time, however, a real train tram was also heading to the Czech Republic, which has long been approved for operation on railways in Europe. Therefore, opponents will have a much harder time blocking its deployment on Czech tracks.
If the project were to catch on, it could end up with dozens of units delivered for hundreds of millions of crowns - instead of completely new vehicles for billions. HN mapped out the details.
Train transports to the test circuit in Velim are often closely watched among railway fans, but this one literally slipped "under the radar". On Monday morning, a Vectron locomotive from IDS coupled an unusual train in Cheb: something resembling a tram, additionally covered on both sides by express cars for braking. And that “tram” had already been standing in the hall of the test circuit in Velim for a few dozen hours.
But it is not a tram, as the standard railway number on the side reveals. It is a Bombardier S1000 tram, built between 1997 and 2000 for the lines around Saarbrücken, Germany. The city near the French border then invested in trams and is now replacing its fleet with newer machines.
It can travel into the city and along the entire Deutsche Bahn network, but it is not allowed on high-speed lines. Its maximum approved speed is 90 kilometers per hour, and the strength of the chassis is similar to that of new locomotives according to railway regulations. And yet it offers much greater dynamics – almost one megawatt of engine power, while it weighs only around 55 tons. This is, by the way, less than, for example, the three-part regional tram known from Czech locales, which has half the power.
Approval for rail traffic in Germany is key: according to European legislation, it will be much easier to register a tram for operation in the Czech Republic. Light rail vehicles have many opponents in local authorities, who argue that they are less strong and theoretically less resistant to collisions. However, a vehicle approved in another EU country has a much easier time obtaining approval.
“A new tram cannot be approved here now,” says Martin Leso, who is behind the entire project. “That is why we chose this particular path: it is a vehicle constructed in the 1990s, and what is more, quite generously, in excellent condition so far,” he says.
Leso has been working at the Czech Technical University for around twenty years and has studied trams theoretically, and can be found in several diploma theses on this topic. Now he has gathered a group of young technicians around him and founded the company Tram-Train CZ, which bought the vehicle from Saarbrücken. And it is far from over.
The plan is to reconstruct it to battery power and approve the modification for regular operation. Intended use: mainly Czech side lines, but also new line projects that will be closer to trams. With more frequent stops, closer to human habitation.
"The first vehicle should be able to present how it works. We want to show it on the lines in the Czech Republic as a whole concept and with the advantages it has compared to classic, 'heavy' railways," says Leso. According to him, the first tram-train should be running on batteries in about a year.
Price? "We estimate the cost of the overall modernization to be around 40 million, because it will be a prototype. For a possible series, we would like to get lower, maybe to thirty million," says Leso.
He himself says that the relatively low price is only a small part of the tram-train's advantages, but it will play a big role in the current market.
For comparison: new low-floor units of the classic type are now being churned out by large manufacturers in the hundreds, and prices are over one hundred million crowns for a two-cell vehicle. Longer or battery-powered vehicles are even more expensive, with talk of up to 150 million. It is precisely because of the high depreciation of new vehicles that transport operators' demands for additional payments for train operation are growing at a rapid pace - now local governments normally pay around 300 crowns for a so-called train kilometer.
A much cheaper and yet quite modern vehicle has potential in such conditions. Thanks to this, Leso has found an investor who is financing the necessary money for the construction of the first unit.
According to HN, this is Jiří Brusch, the owner of the Westercom company - which mainly supplies technologies for transport and industrial automation, but is more of a smaller player in the industry with a turnover of tens of millions.
"We are talking about social benefit, the tram-train is supposed to demonstrate the benefit of the entire concept," Brusch told HN. Did he take too big a financial hit? “I’m not exactly a patron, it should also have a commercial sense and I think it does,” he added.
Huge investments have been made in Czech railways in the 22 years since the country joined the EU, with Transport Minister Ivan Bednárik (for the SPD) estimating them at hundreds of billions of crowns. But they were directed towards conventional railways – into new trains, communication technology, but mainly into concrete and gravel on and around the tracks. The train-tram concept is different, less spectacular.
“Next year we would like to have a roadshow in the regions where we will start promoting the whole concept. In addition, we need to amend the legislation that would allow us to produce new light vehicles in ten to fifteen years, when these ones start to reach the end of their service life,” says the spiritual father of the whole about the Martin Leso project.
But that is still a long way off. In Saarbrücken, there will be around twenty more of these Bombardier S1000s available in the coming years, which could significantly affect the situation on Czech railways in the coming years.