Despite visiting Prague 12 times before this trip, I had never taken the opportunity to travel with RegioJet on their rail network. For those who are not aware of them, they are a private operator that run trains from Prague to destinations in Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Croatia.
Since April 2010 these distinctive yellow trains have been running into and out of Praha hlavní nádraží (Prague Main Station) and have been largely been aiming at the student market, after all their parent company is called Student Agency.
I decided that whilst I had a spare night in Prague before my flight home that I would try them out on a short journey to the city of Pardubice, approximately 102km east of Prague.
The Details
Date of Journey: 14/09/2021
Departure Station: Praha hlavní nádraží
Arrival Station: Pardubice hlavní nádraží
Class of Travel: Standard
Price: €4.80/ £4.06/ 122CZK
The Journey
When boarding the train there is an attendant on the platform waiting to greet you. They are normally responsible for one carriage and serve passengers throughout the journey.
The train has two types of standard coaches, some that have compartments with 6 seats in them, and the others have open seating, for my journey I was in the open carriage.
The seats are comfortable and have a leather cover. Upon boarding a bottle of water is waiting for you (if you have used a student card you will receive a second bottle of water)
All the airline seats in this carriage have seat back entertainment that was available from boarding.
From the screen you can order snacks to your seat, browse the internet, watch movies and listen to the radio. If you have forgotten your headphones then you are able to rent a pair for the journey from the staff.
The Staff
The staff were the biggest let down of the journey if I am honest. I can across one member of staff on the platform who said hello when I was boarding.
Apart from that, I didn’t see them again until leaving the train. I was surprised that tickets were not checked onboard, however, I believe RegioJet operate a mandatory reservation policy meaning that all passengers onboard are meant to be on that particular train.
The Seats
The seats onboard the train were comfortable and sufficient for the journey. Legroom in an airline seat was sufficient for me (I am 6ft 3inches for context) and I was able to sit comfortably for my entire journey.
Each seatback pocket also contains two different booklets, a menu of what is available onboard (available in Czech, Slovak, English, German and Hungarian), as well as a small leaflet pointing out all the highlights of the Czech Republic and what to do in each city that they serve.
My Final Thoughts
Overall, this journey was better than I expected. As RegioJet specialise in services for Students I was expecting them to fit as many people into the train as they could, however this turned out not to be the case.
The price was more than reasonable, but I must emphasise, I am saying the price is reasonable as somebody from the UK, this may not be the view of somebody in the Prague when the price is put into context with wages.
The staff could have been more engaging, however, Czech culture tends to mean that train staff only engage with passengers when it is essential, rather than here in the UK where staff tend to interact more with passengers.
Overall, I would travel with RegioJet again if they had a service running on a route I needed to travel on.
George Nugent Travels 