200 km/h in regular service for the first time on the Czech network

From Sunday 31 August 2025, the ČD Class 680 Pendolino will be used on one pair of „Jižní expres" (Southern Express) services between Praha and České Budějovice. Southbound, it will be the evening IC 591 service, replacing the current IC 545, and return, from 1 September, it will be the evening IC 590 service, replacing IC 542. In the case of the service to the south Bohemia, it is also an extension of the SC 500 service from Bohumín, creating a direct Ostrava - Praha - České Budějovice service.

The travel time in the south direction between Praha and České Budějovice will be reduced from 1 h 42 min to 1 h 35 min, and in the north direction from 1 h 41 min to 1 h 30 min. This is achieved primarily by using the technology of Pendolino bodyshell tilting, both in the Votice - Sudoměřice and Doubí u Tábora - Soběslav sections, in which tilting allows travel at speeds of up to 200 km/h, as well as in other parts of the Praha - České Budějovice line. After last year's test runs at 200 km/h in the Tábor region, this speed will be introduced in regular service for the first time in history on Czech railways.

Increasing the speed from 160 km/h to 200 km/h in both of the short sections mentioned can lead to a saving of about one minute in travel times, which is also indicated by the one-minute difference in travel time between the current IC 542 and the future IC 590 between České Budějovice and Tábor. Further reduction in travel times already results from the use of bodyshell tilting in other sections. The significant reduction in travel time between Tábor and Veselí nad Lužnicí (from 12 to 9 minutes) probably results from the use of reserves used as standard when creating the timetable.