Dec 19, 2006, 9:07 GMT
Prague - A major facelift for Prague's main train station, Hlavni nadrazi, is expected to complicate travel at times for up to five years starting in December.
The century-old, Art Nouveau-style structure will be refurbished as part of 5-billion-koruna (237 million dollar) project to overhaul three stations operated by the state rail agency Ceske drahy (CD).
Stations in the western spa towns of Karlovy Vary and Marianske Lazne also are slated for reconstruction.
But CD considers Hlavni nadrazi's overhaul 'crucial' for the future of the national railway network, one of Europe's most extensive, said CD Deputy Director Petr David.
Every day some 100,000 travellers or about 10 per cent of the country's rail commuters, pass under the station's huge dome while walking to and from train platforms.
A CD statement said its contractor Grandi Stazioni, an Italian firm that's currently overhauling the Milan and Naples rail stations, would schedule work to minimize travel interruptions.
Initial construction of today's Hlavni nadrazi spanned eight years, ending in 1909, when Prague was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The main rail line linked Prague and Vienna.
The station was originally named after Emperor Franz Joseph I, renamed after World War I for former US president Woodrow Wilson, and given its current name by the former communist regime in 1953.
The structure has been decaying since the Cold War. It's now used by the homeless and numerous merchants, including a second-hand clothing shop in an ornate waiting room.
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