Cycling in Berlin today using Nextbike and Dott e-bike. Mixed feelings. Pros: there are bike paths and lanes in Berlin, the intersections are clear and well-marked and - very importantly- there are other cyclists. Cons: the bike paths are overall quite poor quality and narrow. 1/

With dishes like this, it’s enough a restaurant car for me. :)

And that’s not all - the full project is to modernize the whole railway to Kladno, and finally connect the Prague Airport with railway as well. But it’ll take a lot of time. It’s interesting to see this railway as well in ten years or so and how far it has progressed then. We’ll see! 13/13

This railway from Kladno used to take trains to the Masarykovo station near the city centre, but for the time being, it terminates at Dejvice, a couple of kilometres away. At least the metro line A has a station nearby. 11/

This train terminates at Hostivice, a small suburb near the Prague Airport. The station is in quite a dilapidated state already, with no platforms whatsoever.

I decide to just board the next train back to Prague, the R45 to Dejvice, as it happened to arrive in just a few minutes. 10/

Very few passengers board, and I understand why. It’s a slow route with sparse catchment, largely overlapping the metro B line and three tram lines. (I didn’t count the whole primary school class that boarded it for one stop, as I don’t think that’s a regular occurrence.) 8/

I even saw a real train dispatcher at work! 7/

The ride starts at snail-pace, as its former stop on the north side of the rail yard has already been dismantled. For the first ten minutes the railcar just shunts from the southern platforms to the northern side of the yard, amidst crossing traffic on the main line, with two direction changes. 6/

My first ride today is also vintage, albeit modernized - a short series 810 DMU from Vagonka, aptly branded as RegioMouse.

The route, S65, is a curiosity. A nickname “Prague Semmering” might be overselling it, but the scenery from the meandering uphill route to the city is still quite nice. 5/

Today, the station itself is still in its well-worn state, bordered by a busy tram and bus street. Just as interesting to see this street in the next decade. 4/

Only two blocks have been completed so far. The urban development seems to be on par with other cities, though as with Prague, comes with a lot of street-side parking.

Definitely interesting to visit this place in five years or so. 3/

I started my trip from the Smíchov station. Behind the station is already a vast construction site, called Smíchov City, where used to be a large freight yard, and in the future a city for 12,000 people, at a respectable 60,000 ppl/km² density. (Not counting the new station itself, I presume.) 2/

Prague. My Interrail stop. An oddball city. Lots of trams and a nice old town, but otherwise quite a car-centric city.

Today I took a glimpse at the regional trains, the Esko Praha, on the west side of the city. While the system is quite outdated, it’s now undergoing a huge renovation effort. 1/