Prague Metro

Prague is a city that is nice to explore on foot, walking through its cobbled streets surrounded by historic buildings, small shops and several pubs. Although the historical centre is fairly compact and can be easily explored on foot, it can sometimes be useful to take public transport to some of the points further away from the central area such as the Castle.

If you get tired after a day of walking, if you are short on time or simply want to travel by public transport, Prague has a metro system that, combined with trams and buses, allows you to reach every part of the city. The Czech capital’s metro system was inaugurated in 1974, during the communist regime, and has three metro lines.

Prague Metro map

If you need to travel by metro and you do not have a map of the metro system with you, don’t worry: just go to the entrance of a station and you will find a map of the different lines with all the information displayed. Paper map lovers, on the other hand, can find a copy at tourist offices, information offices, ticket offices and even at several hotels.

If you are planning your trip and would like to have a ready-made map at hand, you can find one at the link below, which allows you to download a PDF version with all the lines and stops. Another alternative is to download the Lítačka app to your smartphone, available for iOS and Android, which allows you to consult the transport map and purchase public transport tickets not only for the city of Prague but also for the Central Bohemian region.

Metro lines

Prague’s metro network has 61 stations and is fast, efficient, convenient and easy to use. The metro, together with surface transport, is managed by the public transport company DPP (Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy).

There are currently three lines and they are distinguished by colour:

• Line A green – from east to west, from Nemocnice Motol – Depo Hostivař
• Line B yellow – from east to west, from Zlicín to Cerný Most
• Line C red – from north to south, from Letňany – Háje

Usually the green A line is the one most used by tourists, as it provides access to the city centre and the main attractions such as the Castle, the Lesser Town (Malostranská stop), the Old Town (Staroměstská stop) and the New Town.

There are three interchange stations in the city centre where two lines intersect:

• Mustek (lower part of Wenceslas Square) – lines A and B
• Muzeum (upper part of Wenceslas Square) – lines A and C
• Florenc (main bus station) – lines B and C

If you need to change metro lines look for the sign “Prestup” which means “connection”, and if you need to exit the station follow the signs for “Výstup” which means “exit”.

Timetable

The Prague metro runs every day of the week from 5 a.m. to midnight, with a frequency ranging from 2-3 minutes during rush hour to 4-10 minutes at other times of the day. From midnight to 5 a.m. public transport is provided by night bus and tram lines.

Fares and subscriptions

Tickets for the Prague metro can be bought at station ticket offices, at vending machines or via the official app. The metro ticket is the same as the one used for buses and trams. Before boarding the metro, the ticket must be purchased and duly validated at the machines. There are no turnstiles at the entrances to the Prague metro, but controls by employees, even in plain clothes, are frequent and it is better not to be found without a ticket.

You can see ticket and metro pass prices on the Prague transport page.

Children and young people under 15 travel free of charge, while there are discounts for the over 60s. All tickets allow interchange with other lines within the specified time and are valid for all means of transport operated by the DPP company.

Stations

The Prague Metro lines stretch over 65 km and have a total of 61 stops, some of which boast stations that have recently been renovated. The origin of the Prague Metro dates back to the early 1970s at the time of Soviet influence.

Unlike the metro stations in other cities such as Naples, Moscow or Budapest, Prague’s stations do not have any special works or decorations but are all in all sober. Entrances are always easy to find as they are marked by an M inserted in an inverted triangle, which is green for the A line, yellow for the B line and red for the C line.

Some stations provide Wi-Fi internet access for passengers, albeit on an experimental basis. Inside the stations it is easy to find your way around thanks to the signs in Czech and English. In any case, remember that the word ‘kolej’ means track, while ‘směr’ means direction.

Once you board a train you may hear the following announcements:

• Name of the next station: ‘Můstek. Příští stanice Muzeum” meaning “You are at the Mustek stop, the next station will be Muzeum.”
• Announcement: “Ukoncete výstup a nástup, dvere se zavírají” which means: “Finish your ascent and descent, the doors are about to close”.