České dráhy, often shortened to ČD, is the major railway operator in the Czech Republic providing regional and long-distance services.
Overview
The company was established in 1993, after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, as a successor of the Czechoslovak State Railways. It is a member of the International Railway Union, and the Organization for Railway Cooperation. With twenty-four thousand employees ČD Group is the fifth largest Czech company by the number of employees. Until 1 July 2008, České dráhy was the biggest employer in the Czech Republic. After experiencing regular losses and requiring government subsidy, the railway reported its first ever profit in 2007 while still receiving government subsidy. Attempts to make it more efficient are currently ongoing and a recent plan to move passenger transport to an independent subsidiary was approved by the Czech government in January 2008. ČD operates trains; fixed infrastructure is managed by SŽDC. In December 2010, the Czech government proposed bringing SŽDC and ČD together in a single holding company. The government has also changed the subsidy available to ČD and SŽDC. In 2014 Pavel Krtek was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. In 2019 the Supervisory Board of Czech Railways dismissed Miroslav Kupec, Chairman of the Board of Directors, who has been in office since September 2018.
Statistics
2015
In 2015 its consolidated revenues reached CZK 33 billion. Revenues from passenger transport amounted to CZK 21 billion, revenues from freight transportoperated by subsidiary ČD Cargo amounted to CZK 11 billion.
2009
of railway lines operated by ČD, of which was electrified track and is double- and multiple-track, all of them transferred to the infrastructure operator SŽDC since.
168.8 million passengers carried
6,907 million passenger-kilometres
76.723 million tonnes of goods carried
13,592 million tonne-kilometres
History
České dráhy is the result of more than 160 years of railway history in the Czech lands. Historic milestones include:
2006: The liabilities of ČD Group increased from CZK 19 billion at the end of 2006 to CZK 53 billion at the end of 2015.
2007: freight transport moved into subsidiary company ČD Cargo
2008: creation of ČD Sky, an alliance between České dráhy and the airline SkyEurope. SkyEurope, which was heavily indebted, went bust in August 2009.
2014: first "ČD Railjet" with passengers runs in the Czech Republic
Freight services
ČD Cargo, the cargo subsidiary, mainly transports raw materials, intermediate goods and containers. As of 2009, it is ranked in the top five largest railway cargo operators in Europe.
Rolling stock
2,726 tractive vehicles, of which 856 are electric locomotives and train-sets
