Tuesday, 09.04.2019
Information on the dialogue forum
First meeting of the dialogue forum in Pirna: On 8 April 2019, representatives from the region and Deutsche Bahn met for the first dialogue forum on the new Dresden–Prague railway line.
DB invited public officials, members of parliament, members of the business community, passenger groups, environmental associations and citizens’ initiatives to Pirna. The dialogue forum will be held alongside the planning process for the new railway line and give a voice to the interests and experiences of people in the region.
The Dresden–Prague project will create new capacity for rail transport and considerably reduce journey times for long-distance passenger trains. The forum members emphasised that the new line should offer the greatest possible benefits (e.g. it should be suitable for mixed traffic while ensuring environmental protection and noise control aspects).
The objectives, membership and future working methods of the dialogue forum were discussed and will be jointly adopted in the form of a mission statement at one of the upcoming forum meetings. The forum members emphasised that planning for the new route should follow a transparent process with open communication, treating all participants as equals.
A further central topic of the meeting was the pre-application conference scheduled for 8 May 2019 to prepare the regional planning procedure. This conference serves to agree on the content and scope of the spatial impact assessment to be prepared. The route of the new line has not yet been decided. The regional planning procedure will examine all the options currently under discussion for possible obstacles.
Following its first meeting, the dialogue forum will meet regularly and discuss the plans in detail.
