Prague will get a new metro station with Depo Zličín planned for the end of the B line

A new terminal station is planned for the metro B line in Prague. The Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) has announced a competition for designing a new stop and a Park+Ride garage for 600 cars at Depo Zličín.

The current end station for the B line is at Zličín, next to a shopping mall. The new station would extend the line to the existing train depot at the intersection of Na Radosti and Mišovická streets. When completed, it will be the 62nd stop in Prague’s metro system.

The plan to extend the line has been discussed for three years. The competition is the first concrete step toward the creation of a new terminal stop and parking garage. The news of the competition was first reported by the transportation news server Zdopravy.cz. The competition was published online on September 18, 2020, but went unnoticed by the media.

Many details around the project are still unclear. The start date of the project has not been announced, and the new station is not mentioned on the DPP website or listed among its current projects.

The competition documentation provides a few parameters for the project.

“In terms of station layout, variations of a single-track station with a side platform as well as a double-track station with an island platform, access from the P + R building by a fixed staircase in combination with a barrier-free ramp, or an elevator are considered. The station is expected to be unattended, with the appropriate equipment,” the contest documentation prepared by Metroprojekt stated.

The planned station is not that far from the current terminal at Zličín, but it would be more convenient for commuters once the Park+Ride garage is completed, as they could go directly from the garage to the metro. It would also be more convenient for people living in the Zličín area as they would no longer have to cross a busy road that feeds into a highway.

The metro B line is currently the longest in Prague, and extends 25.6 kilometers from Černý most in the northeast of Prague to Zličín in the city’s southwest. The line opened in 1985, running from Florenc to Smíchovské nádraží. Despite being the B line, it opened third, after metro C, which opened in 1974, and metro A, which opened in 1978,

The existing Zličín station opened in 1994 as part of the extension from Nové Butovice. The last extension was from Českomoravská to Černý Most in 1998. The last new station on the line was Kolbenova, which opened in 2001 along the existing tracks. Currently the B line has 24 stations.

The B line will not be the first to end at a train depot. The metro A line has used Depo Hostivař as a terminal since 2006. The planned metro D line will end in Depo Písnice in the south of Prague.