Metro Closing due to snow melt this afternoon

Melting snow causes almost five hour halt on Prague metro line.

Prague residents have long been used to the city’s efficient metro system but efficiency wasn’t the word that came to mind for many commuters on Wednesday, when a part of the oldest line in the system was closed off for more than four hours. Announcements were played in a loop outside stations every few minutes warning travelers of the situation. The crux of the problem? Heavy snow that had melted in the metro tunnel within Prague’s Nusle bridge.

Prague’s 37-year-old Nusle bridge, 40 metres high in places and almost half a kilometer long, is a crucial link on Prague’s Metro line C, containing within a tunnel connecting separate parts of the city. But on Wednesday, it proved the weakest link, as heavy snow on the bridge’s surface – a six-lane throughway – melted. Water made its way into the tunnel causing electrical damage, forcing closure on part of the line, between stations Pražského povstaní and Florenc, from two in the afternoon to seven in the evening. Firefighters were called to the scene to try to pump the water out and mop up.

As a result part of the line had to be shut down, leaving thousands of commuters temporarily stranded( AND I was one of them ) , many waiting patiently outside stations doors hoping travel would resume soon. But it didn’t, leaving many running very late.