České dráhy

České dráhy (English: Czech Railways), often shortened to ČD, is the major railway operator in the Czech Republic providing regional and long-distance services. The company was established in January 1993, shortly after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, as a successor of the Czechoslovak State Railways. It is a member of the International Railway Union (UIC Country Code for the Czech Republic is 54), the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies, and the Organization for Cooperation of Railways. With twenty-four thousand employees ČD Group is the fifth largest Czech company by the number of employees. In 1828, the first horse-drawn railway in continental Europe was established in the present-day Czech Republic, from České Budějovice to Linz. The first steam-hauled railway in the area was established in 1839, from Vienna to Břeclav. The first standard gauge electrified railway track in the area was built in 1903. Czechoslovak State Railways (Československé státní dráhy, abbreviated as ČSD or CSD), the predecessor of České dráhy, was established in 1918. In 1991, the first EuroCity (EC) trains ran on ČSD railways. České dráhy was founded in 1993, following the breakup of Czechoslovakia. The company began a program of renovating Pan-European railway corridors the same year. The following year, the company launched truck transportation ("RoLa") on ČD railways from Lovosice to Dresden, which it stopped in 2004. During the 1990s, there was a noticeable drop in railway traffic throughout the Czech Republic, a phenomenon that coincided with a massive expansion in road transport. Seeking to halt, or even partially reverse, this trend, substantial efforts were made to restructure and modernise the railways and their operation. One such measure was the establishment of České dráhy as a joint stock company in January 2003; soon thereafter, various subsidiaries were created that focused on various sectors, such as research, telecommunications, and rolling stock maintenance.