CZECH REPUBLIC: National operator České Dráhy has put into service the first full rakes of ComfortJet coaches, adding the missing driving trailer and restaurant cars to sets which had until now been operating in short formation.
In April 2021 ČD awarded a consortium of Siemens Mobility and Škoda Group a KC12·5bn order to supply 20 nine-car sets of push-pull coaches from Siemens Mobility’s Vectouro platform. These were based on the Viaggio Comfort trainsets originally developed for Austrian Federal Railways’ Railjet services.
They entered service from June 2024, initially running as seven car sets because of authorisation delays for the dining and restaurant cars.
The first two complete nine-car sets entered service on the Praha – Bohumín route on April 14, with use on routes to Germany, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary to follow later in the year.
The sets are currently operating as traditional locomotive-hauled stock. Push-pull operation controlled from the driving car, which has an identical cab to a Vectron locomotive, is still to come.
