Throughout the rest of the 19th century the rail network in the whole of Europe grew rapidly and after the First World War and the independence of Czechoslovakia, the company Československé státní dráhy (Czechoslovak state railways) was founded.

From 1948 until the Velvet Revolution the border crossings with Austria and West Germany were strictly controlled and only a limited number of trains was operated.

Following the fall of communism, the railway network was reopened to Western Europe; the first EuroCity trains operated in transitional Czechoslovakia in 1991.

In 2010, the Czech government proposed merging Správa železnic (then-called SŽDC) and České dráhy to a single company.

In 2011, RegioJet, a subsidiary of Student Agency, became the first company to actively compete with České dráhy on a route, launching a service between Prague and Havířov.