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Keeping the Railways on Track

Coverage from this week's Prague Post on the problems integrating the Italian made high-speed Pendolino train into the Czech rail system. In short, very much like the Acela on the east coast of the US--which suffered from brake problems and is speed-limited on half of its route--it doesn't run as it should.

Aside from a host of delays on the single route that the train covers--from Prague to Ostrava in North Moravia--the biggest difficulty is a communication barrier. The Pendolino expert that the Italians sent to addess the problems doesn't speak Czech, and the Czech train operators don't speak Italian. As a result of the delays, the Czechs are seeking 600,000 Euro in compensation.

Luckily, the trams the Czechs have bought to replace the stalwart red-and-white models in Prague are made by Porsche. Let's hope they run on time.

[Image via Agent Amino/Flickr]