波鉄 (Hatetsu)Welp, unhappy news for walk-up railway proponents and #Interrail users: ČD is expanding compulsory reservation to all trains it operates as part of line Ex1 between Prague and Ostrava from #RailwayNewYear - that means all EC and IC trains running that route will require reservations in addition to the SuperCity Pendolino trains that already did.
ČD have emphasized that reservations will remain optional on all trains running on PSO contracts - that means trains like the Púchov-bound Valašský Expres ECs (with a change in Hranice) or the Slovacký Expres rychlík trains (with a change in Přerov) remain booking-free options (note that the change was not applied in draft timetables you can get from the Správa Železnic, so you can't see which trains are affected at a glance yet, but the press release explicitly mentions trains like the Silesia to Poland are affected - which will be kind of funny as that should create a tiny comp res-free section Ostrava-Bohumín there).
Of course, the thing they emphasize more is that seat reservations on SuperCities will now be cheaper to match the newly squared-R trains - from 70 (source: seat61) to 35 CZK. They seem to have already dropped the price as of today on cd.cz, at least, despite the wording of the announcement suggesting it would only apply from the change.
https://www.ceskedrahy.cz/tiskove-centrum/tiskove-zpravy/ceske-drahy-spustily-predprodej-jizdenek-na-jizdni-rad-2026 (via Rynek Kolejowy)