About Czech Transport

Czech Transport is a small, family-run travel agency for ground transport in Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans (the countries of former Yugoslavia). We have been in business since January 2006. We are not a carrier: we book and buy tickets from railways and bus companies on behalf of our customers. We are an official sales partner of České dráhy (Czech Railways).

This page explains what we do, how an order works, why our tickets cost more than on a carrier's own website, and when you are better off buying directly from the carrier.

What we do

• Train and bus tickets, domestic and international, as e-tickets or printed paper tickets.
• Group tickets for 6 or more travellers.
• Transfers: Prague taxi and airport transfers, intercity transfers and bus rental.
• Prague public transport passes.
• Free travel information: timetables, engineering works (track closures, replacement buses) and stop information, usable without buying anything.

How an order works

1. You order and pay on our website in a few minutes, by card or bank transfer.
2. A person on our team checks the order: date, stations, connections and engineering works on the day of travel.
3. We buy the ticket from the carrier where it is available and best value at that moment. Example: a ticket for the Vienna–Kyiv train can be issued by ÖBB (Austrian Railways) or by MÁV (Hungarian Railways). If it is sold out at ÖBB, or more expensive there, we buy it from MÁV.
4. You receive the ticket by e-mail and on your order page. Paper tickets are sent by Nova Post, DHL or post.

How quickly you get the ticket depends on how soon you travel:

What we can do that a carrier's website cannot

• Tickets that are not sold online. Tickets for the Kyiv–Vienna train, in both directions, are sold only as paper tickets, from 21 days before departure. Every night at midnight (Prague time) one more day goes on sale, and the train often sells out soon afterwards. We print these tickets right after midnight and send them by Nova Post or DHL.
• Group fares. Discounted fares for groups of 6 or more exist only on paper tickets, which we issue ourselves on the UNIPOK system of České dráhy. Within the Czech Republic the group discount always applies; abroad it depends on the carrier and the route.
• One order for a journey with several carriers: one payment, one contact, one set of documents.
• Carrier website outages are our problem, not yours. Carriers' online shops fail regularly: one day the search does not work, another day the payment gateway. We keep trying until the ticket is bought, and you do not spend your time on it.
• A check before we buy. If your train does not run on the chosen date, for example because of engineering works, we tell you before we buy the ticket, so you do not pay for a ticket you cannot use.

Why we cost more than the carrier

Most carriers pay us no commission. Our price is therefore the carrier's fare plus our booking fee, and it is higher than on the carrier's own website. The fee is stated in our terms and conditions and in the table at the bottom of this page.

If we manage to buy the ticket cheaper, for example at a promotional fare, we refund you the difference, so that what we keep never exceeds the published booking fee.

For the fee you also get:

• Support in 8 languages by e-mail, phone and WhatsApp.
• Help when something goes wrong. If a train is cancelled or a ticket cannot be bought, we offer you an alternative or a full refund, and we pass your claims to the carrier.
• No need to deal with a foreign carrier's website, its language, its payment methods or its account registration.

When you should buy directly from the carrier

We would rather tell you than have you overpay:

• A single domestic journey with a carrier whose website works in your language and accepts your card, for example České dráhy within the Czech Republic or ÖBB within Austria, is cheaper bought directly.
• A promotional fare you have already found on a carrier's website is usually cheapest there.

Our fee is worth it for international journeys, journeys with several carriers, the Balkans, groups, sold-out trains and tickets that are not sold online, and whenever the carrier's website does not work for you.

Who we are

We are a family business, not a corporation. Pavel Hájek started selling tickets in January 2006 as a sole trader; since 31 December 2010 the business has been run by H-TEAM s.r.o., owned by Pavel and František Hájek.