The government of Andrej Babiš declared in its programme statement that senior citizens over 65, pupils and students under 26 will travel free of charge in trains. The continuation of the D49 motorway has been added to selected priority transport projects.
Emission Measurement Stations will start taking photos of vehicles from January on. The images will be stored, together with the measurement results, in an online information system of the Ministry of Transport. So the system, which the stations were testing during November and December, will now be launched. A similar process has applied already since 2016 for providing evidence of the presence of a vehicle in Technical Inspection Stations.
The European Court of Justice ruled in today's ruling that Uber is a transport service which, under the current wording of EU law, the member states can regulate. The ruling also says that Uber providers must have the appropriate trade licence and comply with other statutory conditions. This confirmed the long-term opinion of the Ministry of Transport. Taxi services provided through modern applications must follows rules laid down by the Road Transport Act. The Ministry already has a proposal how to allow these new services to function in a legal way.
Next year will bring a number of innovations and changes to drivers in the Czech Republic. Already from January they will be for example able to travel free of charge on five other sections of motorways, constituting city bypasses or through which category I roads pass. Staring in July, application for the driving licence can be made from outside the place of permanent residence in any office with extended powers. On the other hand, the Emission Measurement Stations will face a new duty: taking photodocumentation of the vehicles measured. You will find a more detailed overview of the changes below.
The Minister of Transport Dan Ťok kicked off the work on almost 10 km of the D6 motorway between Prague and Karlovy Vary in an opening ceremony The Nové Strašecí – Řevničov and the Řevničov bypass projects will relieve the local municipalities from transit traffic and reduce the travel time from Prague to this regional town. Both construction projects were tendered for two thirds of the price.
The Minister of Transport officially kickstarted the construction of the relocation of the I/16 road Slaný – Velvary. Once this road is in the new position, the traffic (which is very heavy in this area) will be diverted outside the residential development of Slaný and adjacent municipalities. The construction of the relocation will also improve the connection between the D8 Ústí motorway with the I/7 road and the connecting D7 motorway.