CZECHIA: Leo Express will cut services on almost all its long-distance routes from 13 December, with Prague–Ostrava falling from seven or eight return trains a day to two or three. The open-access operator calls the new timetable a first phase and plans to add trains during 2027.
Leo Express spokesman Emil Sedlařík confirmed the cuts to Czech transport news site Zdopravy.cz on 29 October. According to the site’s count of the timetable and booking system, Prague–Bratislava drops to one train a day, Prague–Prešov to four return trains a week and Prague–Warsaw to one return train. The domestic Polish service between Kraków and Warsaw is the only long-distance line left at its current level.
On Prague–Ostrava, Leo Express competes with state operator Czech Railways and with RegioJet. From December, the two will run almost all the long-distance trains on the line.
“The currently published Leo Express timetable is the first phase of the offer for 2027, not its final scope,” he told the news site. He said services would be expanded gradually during 2027, especially in spring.
Flirt conversion and coach refurbishment
Leo Express links the cuts to a delay in converting its Stadler Flirt electric units for dual-system operation and to work on RIC coaches bought from Deutsche Bahn. The coaches are undergoing technical and interior adjustments, the spokesman said. The operator’s Talgo trainsets, repeatedly withdrawn after faults this year, do not appear in the plan, the site reported.
The draft timetable had practically the same level of service as today. When the reduced timetable appeared in the booking system, the operator said more trains would still be added.
The cuts come four weeks after Leo Express withdrew its Frankfurt–Przemyśl train after just over three months, citing construction work in Germany.
Munich trains not in the timetable
Leo Express is contracted by the Czech Ministry of Transport to run Prague–Munich trains from 13 December, after beating Czech Railways in the tender. Those trains are not yet in its timetable or booking system, the news site reported, and the spokesman did not mention the route in the comments the site published.
On 20 October, the news site reported that Leo Express had yet to sign an agreement with German operator Die Länderbahn to run the trains beyond the border to Munich. The Czech contract obliges Leo Express to run only as far as the border.