ÅF has participated in delivery of key railway infrastructure project in the Czech Republic.
With population of almost 400 thousand inhabitants, Brno is a second largest city in the Czech Republic and a capital of the South Moravian Region. Thanks to its location on the railway network, Brno rail node represents an important junction not only for the local, regional and national rail services, but also for the long-distance international trains connecting capital cities of Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. However, the current railway infrastructure in the Brno metropolitan area has already reached its technical capacity and requires major investments in order to satisfy expected future transport demand. The main goal of the feasibility study was to design and evaluate a set of possible solutions that would enable the necessary improvement in technical and operational parameters of the railway lines and stations located in the Brno rail node. This is crucial not only from the technical or economical point of view, but also from a wider perspective of sustainable mobility where a reliable, high-quality public transport system plays a key role. As a member of a consortium with other two local companies, ÅF was responsible for following highly complex, expert tasks: • Current transport supply and demand analysis • Macroscopic multimodal transport model of Brno and surrounding region • Future travel demand forecast • Future public transport concept evaluation and optimization With respect to the travel demand forecast, other transport model outcomes as well as to the results of a cost-benefit analysis, all proposed options of improvement works in the Brno rail node proved to be reasonable, beneficial and economically efficient. However, the feasibility study itself represents only a first step in a long-term process and the future of the Brno rail node project as well as the final choice of a particular project option is now in the hands of responsible decision-makers.