Operator: České dráhy
Headcode: EC171
Route: DRE-PRG
Class: 1st Class
Seat: ??
Date: Tuesday 16th September 2025
With our base in Dresden providing good connections across Saxony and into Czechia, we had decided to have a daytrip to another city partway through our stay. As such, on our third full day in Dresden, rather than jump on a tram from the Haupbahnhof into the city centre, we headed up to the high level through platforms ready to jump on a service to Prague. This journey would be with České dráhy on one of their Eurocity ‘Berliner’ services which, as the name suggests connects the Czech and German capitals via Dresden.
Our journey to the Czech capital was scheduled to take just under two hours and 20 minutes and so we’d decided to enjoy the journey by upgrading to first class. The service arrived from Berlin a couple of minutes before departure and the single first-class carriage was at the southern end of the train, just behind the buffet car and locomotive. Unfortunately, given I had been a bit stingy and refused to pay Deutsche Bahn for reservations, the train was busy, and we struggled to find any unreserved seats, eventually settling on some booked from Berlin which were still vacant. The services between Berlin and Prague run every two hours and are clearly popular, with lots of people boarding in standard class as well, causing a slight delay to our departure as we left one minute late at 0911.
These Czech first-class carriages are laid out in a 2-1 configuration, with it ‘swapping’ halfway down the carriage so that the single seat is on the other side of the aisle. The leather seats were comfortable and spacious, with large seat back tables, plenty of leg room and a footrest. The carriages seemed to be pretty new, possibly one of the new ‘Comfortjet’ sets, and the first-class carriage seemed well laid out with plenty of luggage storage above the seats and at the ends and in the middle of the carriage. The pairs of seats had plug sockets located between them, and although I struggle to find where the socket was located on the single seat, I’m sure they had them.
WiFi was of course available onboard and the ‘landing page’ had an entertainment portal which included music, games, e-books and a live tracker that showed the train’s location, speed and sights to see enroute. The journey between Dresden and Prague pretty much follows the Elbe and then Vltava valleys and had four intermediate stops, one in Germany and three in Czechia. The first stop, Bad Schandau came around 25 minutes after Dresden and shortly after I headed to the front of the train and the buffet car to check it out and grab a coffee.
First-class doesn’t include any refreshments on these trains (except a bottle of water), however the buffet is reasonably priced with a coffee, two teas and a wafer bar costing 279CZK (around £10). Initially I didn’t think this was a full restaurant car, with the buffet hatch just having drinks and snacks available, however thinking back, it this hatch was at the ‘near’ end of the carriage so there was quite possibly a restaurant area at the other end along the corridor. However, at the time I didn’t explore and didn’t think about it, so I was hopeful for a restaurant car on the way back to Dresden that evening.
Whilst the majority of the carriages had enclosed gangways between them with a ‘multiple unit’ feel, the buffet car was clearly an addition to the ‘comfortjet’ set as the gangway between it and the first seated carriage was much noisier and open. As I was at the buffet car, we crossed the Germany/Czech border, around half an hour after leaving Dresden and we stopped at our first Czech station, Děĉín hl.n, around 10 minutes later. As we departed Děĉín, we passed a large České dráhy depot which had a few old diesel units and a lot of locomotives stabled, with Czechia (and much of Europe) having a lot more loco hauled services than the UK.
Our third stop, Ústi nad Lamen hl.n, came around 20 minutes after leaving Děĉín, and after leaving here the journey continued quite slowly as the line followed the curves of the river Elbe. Confusingly the České dráhy website seemed to indicate that we wouldn’t be stopping at Ústi, or the next stop of Praha-Holešovice, however both were served and it might well have been a translation error as we did pass through some engineering works between the two. As we got closer to Prague the line did straighten out and once we were clear of the engineering works we were able to get up some speed, eventually reaching a high of 160kph (100mph).
After the final stop of Praha-Holešovice in the north of the city, we wound our way through the north-east of the city, on a viaduct or embankment high above the riverside streets, giving us a great view of Prague castle on the other side of the Vltava. Arriving into Praha hl.n at 1129, two minutes late, I had been pretty impressed by this journey with České dráhy and how comfortable it had been. From Berlin to Prague the journey time is about four and a half hours, and I genuinely believe that you’d barely notice the journey travelling on one of these trains. The only downside is if you end up with a buffet car rather than a full restaurant car, as the selection is more limited, but overall, it was a really pleasant journey.
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 4*
Food 3*
Service 5*
Punctuality 5*
Overall Rating 16/25 (read about my rating system here!)
Flights & Times 