About this journey

Praha hlavní nádraží station stands as the busiest railway station in the Czech Republic, its Art Nouveau building completed between 1901 and 1909 to the designs of Czech architect Josef Fanta. The station traces its origins to 14 December 1871, when the Emperor Franz Joseph Railway opened its southbound service toward Benešov, Tábor and Vienna — the same corridor this journey follows. The platform hall, roofed in 1905–1906, arches across two naves each spanning 33.3 m, rising 18 m and stretching 233 m in length. A statue on Platform 1 marks a quieter chapter: in 1939, Nicholas Winton organised eight train transports from this station, placing 669 mostly Jewish children on trains bound for the United Kingdom.

The line runs south through Bohemia toward České Budějovice, a city whose railway history reaches back to 1828, when a horse-drawn line to Linz became one of the earliest rail connections in Central Europe. The current Neo-Renaissance station building, designed by Gustav Kulhavý and built by J. M. Kohler & son, opened in 1908, with the first service to call there an express from Trieste to Prague on 17 December 1908. That same international axis — Prague south to Linz in Austria — defines České Budějovice station to this day, contrasting with the dense urban departures from Praha hlavní nádraží that begin the ride.