Here are some photos of probably the last train on the branch.

The branch runs from Vranovice in Souther Moravia to Pohorelice. It is a classic Czech branch, currently totally anachronistic and closed.

The route to Pohorelice for passenger service closed at midnight 14 December, 2008. This 8.47 km long route, traced mostly out the wide flood-plain of river Jihlava was opened for service on 17 September 1895. Over the last years the route could be found in timetables under Line 253. It starts as a local sideline from Vranovice station which is on the main corridor line Brno - Breclav. Across villages Pribice and Velký Dvùr the line connects Pohorelice town to the rest of the world, as Pohorelice represents the natural cultural and administrative center of the region.

Since 1996 the motorway R52 (so-called Vienna’s highway) has been competition for the local railway, and with speeds of 120 kph on the motorway and a direct route to almost everywhere, the branch with a line limit of 50 k.p.h. was doomed and its closure inevitable. For the citizens of Pohorelice, the railway was only really useful bringing better access to the Bøeclav region, despite a good connection towards Brno in Vranovice station, also. Therefore the trains over the last years were utilized only in the initial short stretch from Vranovice to Pribice.

In 1990s, despite the clsoing of many unprofitable branches, the Pohorelice local railway survived. But in 2008 the regional council decided it could provide transport services in this region more economically by using buses instead. In recent years the passenger service was provided only on workdays and towards the end there were a total of 13 pairs of passenger trains daily.

The last train was on the evening Os 4661 commuter from Pohorelice to Breclav on Friday 12 December 2008, arriving Vranovice at 7.52 PM. On Sunday, 14 December an official tribute to local passenger transport took place with a special train hauled by 475.101 steam engine from Brno. The train also provided two pairs of passenger specials between Vranovice and Pohorelice stations in the afternoon mostly for locals.

From Pohorelice only a pair of local freight trains Mn 82520/Mn 82521 remained at night (at Pohorelice from 1.50 AM to 2.15 AM). They had been loaded mostly by Hulman – kovošrot Ltd. from Pohorelice. Any chance of preserving the branch is difficult to see. It would be impossible to vindicate the track-maintenance costs, when a major part of the line is equipped with old wooden sleepers and if only a quite poor freight transit is operated on the route.

The branch is 8.5 km long with stations as follows (km from Vranovice in brackets):

Vranovice
Pribice (2.9 km)
Velký Dvùr
Pohorelice (8.47 km),

Normal service was a Class 809 or 810 generally the former.

We were glad on February 27, 2010 to run what was probably the last train on the branch. What will happen the branch? Probably just left there.

Updated March 12, 2010.