Turnstiles may be reintroduced to the Prague metro system

The Prague Public Transport Company is considering whether to bring ticket-barriers back into operation in the capital's metro system, reported Hospodarske noviny on Wednesday. In an interview given to the paper, the head of Prague's Public Transport Company, Martin Dvorak, said he was 'seriously considering' the idea as a means of cutting down on the number of passengers currently travelling without a ticket. Last year, 296,000 people were caught using the city's public transport without a ticket, a figure up 10,000 on 2005. According to Mr Dvorak, a study on the financial viability of a turnstile system is currently being carried out. The Public Transport Company will start to work out the details of any such system only when the study is completed, in around two months' time. If approved, ticket-barriers could be up and running in the metro by 2009, he said. The Prague underground network had a system of turnstiles up until 1985, when they were removed to lessen congestion in the metro.