Aleš Loprais arrived by pendolino
)
Aleš Loprais, Czech racing driver who finished with his Tatra truck in third place in the Rally Dakar´s category of trucks, arrived in Prague as late as on 25 January 2007 - due to a snow blockade he arrived not at the airport Praha Ruzyně, as it was expected, but by SC Pendolino train at the railway station Praha-Holešovice. Due to the weather and a closed Prague airport he traveled from Dakar via Vienna and Ostrava and arrived in Prague by SC 502 train from Ostrava.
”We had not experienced such comfort as on Pendolino for the last 30 days“, Aleš Loprais commented his journey by SC Pendolino train. His uncle and a successful racing driver in the previous Dakar Rally´s years adds: ”Pendolino saved our today´s program in Prague. Yesterday we were trapped at the airport in Brussels, our flight to Prague was being put off until its definite cancellation. We managed to book seats in the flight to Vienna, from where we went at night by car home to the North of Moravia and after a short stay at home we changed for Pendolino and traveled to Prague.“
SC 502 train, by which Aleš and Karel Loprais were traveling today, was sold out – Czech Railways experienced a significantly higher interest in traveling by train yesterday and today. Passengers prefer SC Pendolino and EC and IC trains to complicated travels by passenger cars especially on the long-distance tracks of Prague – Ostrava and Prague – Brno.