SuperCity Pendolino
ČD's new Pendolino trains provide the fast but limited SuperCity (SC) service to Ostrava, via Pardubice and Olomouc, and to Bratislava, via Pardubice, Brno, Břeclav, Hohenau (Austria), Vienna, and Kúty (Slovakia). The Pendolino costs extra but the trains are sleek and offer more services. Pendolino trains leave from the Nádraží Holešovice station.

For a trip to Vienna, this may be your best bet. The Pendolino offers a more direct route with fewer stops and has a higher priority than regular trains at signals. There's a fairly helpful SC Pendolino website, in Czech, English, and Slovak, but it's only possible to buy tickets online in Czech.

The bad news with the SuperCity service is that your journey will be only marginally faster than many regular services. Although Pendolino trains top out at 230 kilometers per hour, this country's curvy rail network rarely allows for a straightaway long enough to reach these speeds.

Seat reservations are required for SuperCity services. These cost 200 CZK but are normally included in the price of your ticket.

Many regular ČD discounts, including the group discount for two or more people traveling together and the discount on return journeys, aren't available on SuperCity services though.


ČD Net/REGIONet Tickets
From June 10th, 2007, ČD offers two new types of tickets:

ČD Net is a one-day ticket valid for second-class rail travel, anywhere in the Czech Republic, on all Osobní, Spěšný, Rychlík, and Expres trains.

If you're traveling alone, a ČD Net ticket costs 390 CZK, but a group of between two and five people traveling together would be covered by a ticket costing 780 CZK.

Upgrades to the faster and more luxurious EuroCity and InterCity trains are available at a cost of just 60 CZK per passenger.

To upgrade to the SuperCity Pendolino service, however, you'll have to buy a seat reservation ticket, at a cost of 200 CZK per person.

Similarly, a one-day REGIONet ticket is valid for second-class rail travel on all Osobní and Spěšný train services, within one region of the Czech Republic. (For ČD's purposes, Prague is part of the Central Bohemian Region.)

If you're traveling alone, a REGIONet ticket costs 130 CZK; a group of two to five people traveling together would be covered by a ticket costing 260 CZK.

Upgrading to a Rychlík, Expres, EuroCity, InterCity or SuperCity Pendolino train isn't possible with a REGIONet ticket.


BUSES
Buses, although less environmentally friendly than trains, are often cheaper and more convenient over shorter distances.

Some bus companies, for example, offer a Prague-Brno special for 99 CZK; on ČD, you can expect to pay at least 200 CZK for the first leg of the same journey.

Because private companies operate most bus routes, competition has forced prices down.

These "bargain" tickets often mean cramped conditions, though, and some unlucky souls have to stand for the majority of a three-hour ride.

Buses score another point over trains by traveling to more bizarre destinations. Otherwise, you may have to switch trains and backtrack, just to get to a village that has Europe's best dumplings.

On the whole, I prefer trains because they're safer, more reliable, greener, and offer a lot more room. Smokers can visit a smoking car, and drinkers, well, can drink wherever they want.


PRAGUE'S MAIN STATIONS
Hlavní nádraží (sometimes abbreviated to "hl.n.") is the main train station, and Florenc (behind the tramlines and metro station, towards the dodgy end) is the main bus station. Cash and all major credit cards or bankcards are accepted at both.

Hlavní nádraží is also where you'd go for train travel information, as they apparently do not give this at any other station.

The English spoken by the employees of bus and train stations can range from incomprehensible to barely comprehensible to decent.

The tellers here usually regard your presence as a major inconvenience, encouraging you to get out before you get what you need.

Masarykovo nádraží is another sales point for national and international tickets, although they don't offer information.

And, in case you were wondering, Prague's train and bus stations are all shady and depraved, just like every other train or bus station I've ever seen.

To purchase a ticket at a station in person, some Czech could be useful. Before I started learning the language, I just wrote down the names of places and times of departure with arrows and stick figures.


PLANNING YOUR JOURNEY
For both trains and buses, it's important to note that some routes take far longer than others. I recently saw a train ride to Kladno (about 20 kilometers west of Prague) that stopped at six different stations, in a ring of hell around Prague lasting eight hours.

Be careful to note the distance and estimated journey time before choosing a particular route, as well as which station it departs from.

Using IDOS, you'll see that trains and buses heading to popular destinations like Karlštejn, Kutná Hora, and Český Krumlov leave from various Prague stations. If you're traveling to Kutná Hora, for example, trains leave from Hlavní nádraží, Nádraží Holešovice, or Masarykovo nádraží.

To travel by bus to Český Krumlov, for example, you can choose to leave from Florenc, from Na Knížecí, near Anděl metro station), or from Roztyly, in the south of the city.

Beyond departing and arriving at particular times, neither station offers a particular advantage over another.

By looking closely at the timetables, however, you'll see that there's a direct Prague-Česky Krumlov bus that doesn't stop in České Budějovice like most of the others do.


THE JOURNEY
On a bus, the driver may nod at you, stamp something, or possibly even sell you a ticket. For short journeys, you must buy your ticket from the driver.

On a train, a conductor will come around and punch a little hole in your paper ticket, so don't look for the time-stamp machines you find on trams or in metro stations.

If you get lost or confused, ask a young person to help you, since they're more likely to speak English -- I can't tell you how many times I've seen foreigners walk up to approachable-looking old ladies that know absolutely no English (but do know how to curse you out in Russian or German).


CONCLUSION
Your first experience of bus or train travel in the Czech Republic will probably be murky, confusing, and often nerve-wracking.

Poorly funded government agencies and unhelpful employees create a constant obstacle to travel, and there's no good way of arranging travel in advance.

But this country's transportation system is comprehensive, cheap, and fun to use. The trains, with carriages up to half a century old, provide a sense of travel as it used to be.

Either while racing by or at a complete stop, the green, rolling countryside opens to a page in the past, when people used to wear their best clothes for traveling -- not throw on their $100 sweat pants and bring a pillow with an iPod built into the zipper.

Travel used to be a rare event, only for the fortunate; nowadays, we can't help but complain about the smells and irritation of traveling in this way. But all those annoyances will disappear as you rock peacefully in the bumpy, noisy cradle of a Russian train car, plunging forward -- and sometimes backwards -- on another adventure.


USEFUL VOCABULARY
train(s) -- vlak(y)
bus(es) -- autobus(y)
station -- nádraží
city center -- centrum
ticket -- jízdenka or lístek
seat -- místo or sedadlo
reservation -- reservace
seat reservation ticket -- místenka
group rate -- skupinová sleva
return trip -- zpáteční lístek


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