Prague, a city where public transport is loved by locals
As part of the Y4PT collaboration with AEGEE in the project Europe on Track II, I went to Czech Republic to meet the Blue Team ambassadors (Javier Castillo, Wessel Reijers and Yana Brovdij) during their stay in Prague. Together, we visited the depot of Prague’s main tube line to have a closer look into one of Europe’s best public transport systems. Also, at Vysoké škole ekonomické v Praze (University of Economics) we had the opportunity to meet young European students, and for a couple of hours, talk about some matters that will shape Europe’s future.There is a lot to tell and to ensure that you will not miss any bit of this adventure, I will divide this experience in 3 different short articles. So let´s get started.
As an Y4PT representative I aimed to observe and experience Prague’s public transport from the perspective of a visitor, which was my case. But also I wanted to get the impressions of the locals; the ones who move around town on a daily basis. At last, with the help of Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy (Prague’s public transport company), I intended to have a better understanding of the logistics and challenges involved on keeping public transport working 24 hours a day.
In order to prepare myself for this challenge, my trip to Prague started before my departure. But when I sat down to study some basic words in Czech, and search more about the city I was going to visit, I wasn’t expecting to read in a traveller’s guide book, things such as: “We (Prague citizens) are very proud of our awesome public transport” or: “Be like us, and use our public transport!” It sounded amazing to see locals proudly encouraging the use of their public transport, because I can’t think of a cheaper and more efficient way of promoting public transport.
So with some good tips written in my notebook and great expectations, I left to Prague.