The Prague main train station (hlavní nádraží) is finally starting to look like a train station. A nice one I mean. One that a city like Prague deserves. A clean one. Bright and airy. Organized. With ways for passengers with strollers, bikes and heavy luggage to get to their platforms without having to drag their strollers, bikes and luggage up stairs and non-working escalators. With wide hallways and civilized looking public toilets (still paid, but oh well…). The repulsive, dreary, smelly basement luggage locker area is gone! It magically disappeared into thin air and was replaced by an open, modern ticket window and information center that doesn’t smell of urine. Boutiques, bakeries, fast food restaurants, regular restaurants, flower shops, and a really nice bookstore are now in place of the handful of tired looking newsstands and plastic wrapped sandwich stands that were once your only “entertainment” and “refreshment” options at the station.
The restoration of the Prague central station is far from finished, but the city no longer has to be ashamed of the pathetic welcome it offered its train traveling visitors until recent months. The work is currently estimated to be finished by 2012. Let’s see what other surprises the Italian investor has in store for us for the coming years.
Here’s just a little personal request: Would it be at all possible to put benches on the platforms? Please?
What a great suggestion – benches on the platforms!
If your blog post is the “after” for Hlavni Nadrazi, I wrote one awhile back that was the “before.” Here it is: http://empty-nest-expat.blogspot.com/2009/03/fantova-kavarna-waiting-patiently-for.html.
I enjoy your blog!
Hi Karen! Thanks for pointing to your blog post about the Fantova kavárna and the “before” state of the station. The café is still in its “before” state and waiting patiently for its return to glory. I’m guessing it will have to wait a bit longer, until the main infrastructure of the station is finished. Because let’s face it, the whole hlavní nádraží was a disaster!