German Railways will lead the Krušné hory tunnel project of the future route Prague-Dresden17/5/2018|Press releasesThe future railway tunnel for the high-speed railway through the Krušné hory mountains will be designed by Deutsche Bahn, operated in accordance with German regulations. This was agreed in Prague by Czech Minister of Transport Dan Ťok with his Saxon colleague Martin Dulige. "We are getting from political declaration to technical questions and designing. We have agreed that a 26-kilometre cross-border tunnel will be designed and operated according to German regulations, which will be regulated in an interstate agreement. For this purpose, a joint project team will be established at Deutsche Bahn Netz level and Railway Infrastructure Administration, "says Minister of Transport Dan Ťok. Between the Czech Republic and Germany there is an increase in freight transport by rail as well as motorway, therefore the high-speed railway is a major priority for Saxon minister of transport, Martin Dulig. At the same time, he wanted to make sure that, as on the German side also in the Czech Republic, intensive preparations are being made and funding of the cross-border railway is ensured. A feasibility study is under way which will assess the economic efficiency of the project by the second half of 2019 and will choose the resulting option of the technical solution for further project preparation. "By the end of 2018, the Railway Administrators will prepare a joint agreement governing the further development of the cross-border section and will also quantify the resources needed for preparation in 2019 and 2020," adds Minister Ťok. The Czech Rail Infrastructure Manager, together with the Saxon Ministry of Economy, Labour and Transport, are cooperating on a new study co-financed by the Czech Republic - Free State of Saxony 2014-2020 Cooperation Program, which deals with specific geological issues in the future tunnel and transport relationship. The new high-speed railway to Dresden, belonging to the priority connections, will shorten the travelling time between Prague and Dresden to one hour and simultaneously will take away part of the traffic from the overloaded conventional route in the Labe Valley. The construction of a new route from Prague to Dresden could start around 2030. Estimates of the cost of the entire route are around five billion Euros.