Avoiding another cross border route collapse in December: why Praha - München should still work
I admit it was not with great joy that I read this story from Zdopravy that states that no contract has yet been signed between Leo Express and Die Länderbahn for the operation of Praha - Plzeň - Domažlice - Furth im Wald - Schwandorf - Regensburg - München services that are to start just 8 weeks from now. But unlike the mess at Padborg - Flensburg, I think this one can more easily be salvaged.
Leo Express won the contract to operate the Czech part of the route for 5 years. The contract was signed in March, and is due to begin on 13th December, with Leo Express taking over from České dráhy.
While I have been critical of Leo Express in recent weeks concerning the mess they made with their Frankfurt - Przemyśl night train and inability to get second hand Talgo trains running, I think the odds are still good they make this one work. Well, as well as it works currently anyway.
Praha - München is a really messy route - mapped here. Praha - Plzeň is an electrified main line. Plzeň - Domažlice - Furth im Wald - Schwandorf is a single track cross border non-electrified line, steadily being upgraded only on the Czech side. Schwandorf - Regensburg is a double track non-electrified line. And Regensburg - München an electrified mainline. The train has to change locomotives (electric to diesel) in Plzeň, change direction in Schwandorf, and change direction and locomotive (diesel to electric) in Regensburg. The trains will run 7 or 8 times a day in each direction, with departures every 2 hours and a trip time of 5 hours 43 minutes.
But Leo Express has to provide only the electric locomotive for the Praha - Plzeň part of the route. And it has to provide the carriages. We know Leo Express has a fleet of 7 or 8 leased Siemens Vectron electric locomotives (and they need only 4 to cover their other services), and a few dozen ex-Deutsche Bahn IC1 carriages. So the rolling stock exists. And importantly this rolling stock is reliable enough and proven enough to mean I think it will work, at least until a summertime heatwave hits.
Die Länderbahn will continue to provide the diesel locomotives for Plzeň - Domažlice - Furth im Wald - Schwandorf, diesel locomotives for Schwandorf - Regensburg, and electric locomotives for Regensburg - München.
Last but not least, Spanish state owned railway Renfe is the majority owner of Leo Express. They cannot afford to mess this up. Failing at some peculiar Frankfurt - Przemyśl open access escapade is one thing, but failing with a public service contract like this is quite another. And if they do mess it up from here, it is going to be something either financial or with staffing, not anything that should take months or years to fix.
Amusingly it is Italian state owned railway FS sitting on the other side of the table - their subsidiary Netinera is owner of Die Länderbahn, and unlike Leo Express have a passable reputation in Germany currently, although if all of this goes wrong, no one is really going to blame them.
But in the end, from December onwards there are still going to be trains from Praha to München. And they are going to be slow and old and unreliable, and the route a mess, just as they always were. To change that is going to need something more fundamental than swapping České dráhy for Leo Express on one part of the route.
Image Rights
Leo Express Intercity 1 Wagen Avmmz 106.1 im Zug LE 235 - Bvcmz248.5 - 24 July 2026 - CC0 1.0
Leo Express night train 235 from Frankfurt am Main (Germany) to Bohumin (Czechia). Train consists of 1x Vectron Multi-system locomotive, 1x RDC Couchette (Liegewagen) and 2x ex-DB IC1 First-Class Intercity carriages - Sladen - 13 July 2026 - CC0 1.0
