Skovice – Vrdy-Bučice railway line
| Skovice – Vrdy-Bučice | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Course book series (SŽDC) : | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route class : | C3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Skovice – Vrdy-Bučice railway is a railway connection in the Czech Republic that is operated today as a siding (“vlečka”), originally built and operated by the Austrian Local Railway Company (ÖLEG) as part of the Časlau – Zawratec secondary railway with branches . It runs from Skovice to Vrdy and Dolní Bučice .
history
On March 9, 1880, the construction company Schön & Wessely in Prague and Hermann Ritter von Schwind were given " the right to build and operate a locomotive railway from the Časlau station of the priv. Austrian Northwest Railway via Žleb and Ronow to Zawratec with a branch from Skowitz to Vrdý and Bučitz " granted. The concession determined the execution of the line as a standard gauge secondary line, the line speed should be limited to 20 km / h. The concessionaires were obliged to start construction within three months of the granting of the concession. The Časlau – Žleb and Skowitz – Vrdý-Bučitz lines should be completed within two years and the entire line within three years. The concession deed was changed again on August 21, 1881. The Austrian state now reserved the right to nationalize at any time.
The ÖLEG opened the routes of the locomotive railway from Časlau to Zawratec with branches on January 6, 1881 (Čáslav-Žleby, Skovice-Vrdy-Bučice) and February 15, 1882 (Žleby-Závratec-Třemošnice). The ÖLEG carried out the operation itself.
The branch line to Vrdy-Bučice was mainly used to transport sugar beet. The most important freight customers were the two sugar factories in Vrdy and Bučice.
From July 1, 1889, the Austrian Northwest Railway (ÖNWB) took over the management on behalf of the owner. After the nationalization of the ÖLEG on January 1, 1894, the line came into the ownership of the kk Staatsbahnen (kkStB). The ÖNWB was finally nationalized in 1909, so that management was transferred to the kkStB.
As a result of the First World War lost by Austria , the line belonged to the network of the newly founded Czechoslovak State Railways (ČSD) from 1918 . The first timetable of the ČSD from 1919 showed a total of five pairs of passenger trains on the route, which in Skovice had a connection to the trains on the Čáslav – Třemošnice line. A single pair of trains also ran directly to and from Čáslav.
Motorized multiple units were used in passenger transport from 1930. Up to nine pairs of passenger trains now ran daily.
After the Second World War, traffic service reached its peak. Around 1950 up to eleven pairs of passenger trains ran daily. A newly established, faster bus connection from Čáslav, however, now pulled travelers away, so that the operation of passenger trains became increasingly unprofitable. On May 28, 1955, travel was finally stopped.
In 1975 the route was downgraded to a siding.
After the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989, traffic on the route fell significantly. The sugar factory in Vrdy stopped production for a while. Freight train journeys now only took place for the Prefa Vrdy company, which was set up on the site of the former sugar factory in Bučice. The Prefa company is now part of the Goldbeck Group and produces prefabricated components. In 2001 the Vrdy sugar factory (Cukrovar Vrdy) also started operations again.
literature
- Miroslav Jelen: Zrušené železniční tratě v Čechách, na Moravě a ve Slezsku , Dokořán 2009, ISBN 978-80-7363-129-1
- Zdeněk Hudec et al .: Atlas drah České republiky 2006-2007 , 2nd edition; Publishing house Pavel Malkus, Praha, 2006, ISBN 80-87047-00-1