Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: stanice

I don't normally put the month in the titles of my photos, but in this case it's significant, as this was less than two weeks after the death of Nicholas Winton at 106 years old (he died on July 1st, 2015). Wikipedia describes him as a "humanitarian," which doesn't do him full justice, as he became best known for having rescued 669 children from the Nazis, arranging for their transport to London (by rail, sea, and air, but primarily by rail) on what became known as the Kindertransport. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindertransport en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Winton The bronze statue behind the candles was actually added within his lifetime, as was another memorial in the passenger tunnel from the platforms, portraying a train door. The candles were added to both memorials to commemorate him after his death.

This is a view of the platform at Cernosice-Mokropsy. The station is advertised as having only one platform, which is true, but the platform serves both tracks.

Although, as a facility, Nadrazi Cernosice-Mokropsy dates to 1862, my sense is that this station is mostly not original, as the buildings appear to be from a 1933 reconstruction (https://www.atlasdrah.net/cz/stredocesky/?id=baza&poz=12805). I've been through this station many times, as it is on the Prague-Beroun mainline (Linka 171), which ultimately continues to Plzen (via Linka 170), but I have only occasionally been out of the train, on the platform. In this case, I had been dropped off to take the train home to Prague. I have so far been unable to uncover much more information on this station, as it is one of the smaller ones on the Ceske Drahy network.

This was the colour-coded recycling bin on the platform of Nadrazi Cernosice-Mokropsy. I took this picture because it included a bin for metal recycling, something that wasn't generally offered in Prague (and, as far as I know, still isn't), in spite of metal being one of the least complicated things to recycle.

This is the station building at Cernosice-Mokropsy. This building looks like it could have been built since 1933, although some buildings in 1933 already looked like this. Ceske Drahy still advertise a staffed ticket office here (as of 2024).

This was the Class 471 "City Elefant" EMU that took me back to Prague. Having said this, the photo is too blurred to get the road number.

When I saw this express roaring through Cercany one night, I couldn't resist a pan shot, and indeed I got much luckier than I had hoped.

Finally...the passenger subway opened in Cercany in mid-November, although I don't know the exact day. This was my first time in it, and I noted that already it had been vandalised. I heard that the train was coming in on Nastupiste 2, meaning Platform 2, so I went to Kolej 2, or Track 2, forgetting that there were 4 tracks and two new platforms. An undercover police officer, probably looking for the person who did this, promptly asked me what I was doing on the wrong platform. Not realising my mistake, I eventually figured out what he was saying, and changed platforms in time to get my train. This was the first time a police officer had ever questioned me in the Czech Republic for taking photographs, but at least someone is finally trying to stop the vandalism on this line, as I've been saying from the beginning that it's getting wrecked faster than it's being built. I do note, though, that this year the policing seems to have been more determined, and indeed the vandalism has gone down slightly.

This is an example of the train-side signs on the Karlovo Namesti platforms, which are standard except for that the letters are on a silver background, which makes them harder to read than in other stations. The little yellow square that you can see indicates, as on other lines, which line the platform is for, in this case Line B.

Standard Prague Metro station signs are color coded to match the color of the line, meaning green for the A line, yellow for the B Line, and red for the C line. The signs on the far side of the track are an exception, as they're made from metal letters attached to the wall. Karlovo Namesti, however, recently bucked this trend when these blue station signs were put in on the passenger side of the platforms...for the B line. Theoretically they should be yellow, as the blue line is only projected as of now, and my understanding is that once constructed the blue line will have dedicated platforms. I'm almost wondering if these signs are a test to see whether the new signs will look right.

Here's one of the ripped out sections. That tunnel at the end leads to a dedicated right of way that helps the trams to get by traffic jams on the streets on the way into the city centre.

As of my visit, some of the tracks weren't out yet, and DPP's workers were still there in spite of it also being evening.

Nadrazi Hostivar is by definition a train station, but adjacent to it is a tram station of the same name. The two aren't directly connected, but if you cross a few streets seperating the stations, you can get there easily. On this particular day, October 2nd, the tracks were all getting ripped out and replaced, and as you can see, the standards are pretty high, as these discarded sections aren't in terrible shape.

Here's one of several shots that I took to commemorate the fact that I made it to Karlovo Namesti with my bike.

In the past two years or so, I've noticed a really cool 19th-Century-style gas balloon (as opposed to a modern hot air balloon) that's been used for sightseeing over the Mala Strana. The last time I saw it, some idiot had thought it would be a good idea to cover it with grafitti, but this was when it still looked good, there on the upper right. The building in the foreground is the Malostranska Metro station, and the Metrocafe.

Here's where it was, just to show I'm not making this story up....

I've forgotten the full details of why I was in Dejvicka on this particular day, but often this is the first Metro station I get to after flying into Praha Ruzyne airport, although such was not the case on this day. Rather, I discovered a BR (British, Network Rail, etc.) train ticket dropped on the platform. Living in a major European city post-Schengen, you see all sorts of tickets from all the EU countries lying on the ground, but I liked this one because it reminded me of Britain. It wasn't the first one I had seen, and it probably won't be the last. I've also seen Paris and Brussels metro tickets lying on the floor of Prague Metro stations.

I took this just as the sun was finally coming out after several days of snow and storms. I liked the way the buildings were illuminated.