According to the plans, work should already to be well under way. But the company that holds a 30-year lease on the building with Czech Railways says it has encountered unexpected delays in obtaining the project's building permit.

"The building is a historical monument, so negotiations were a bit harder," says Martin Hamšík, spokesman of Grandi Stazioni Česká Republika, claiming that for such a long and complicated project, three months is not a significant setback (the project was to begin in August).

"The delay won't affect the time when the renovation is supposed to be finished — in four years."

Prague, like other European cities, is trying to revamp its main train station and respond to commuters' changing needs. In addition to simply providing a transportation point, the contemporary trend is adding commercial space.

"A train station should be a meeting place," says Patrik Kotas, the chief architect of the project, suggesting that the station could be a place where a family goes on a Sunday to spend time together shopping.

Anyone who has spent time at Hlavní nádraží recently can appreciate how seemingly wishful that plan is. For the past two decades, the station has steadily become one of the most undesirable parts in Prague, a meeting place for crime and poverty.

It comes as no surprise that a healthy skepticism about the station's transformation into a luxury transportation portal prevails among those who note that the site now is best known as a hangout for the city's homeless.

In the early 20th century, Hlavní nádraží was an attractive, ornate landmark, built by the renowned architect Josef Fanta. Today, only a fraction of the 100,000 passengers who pass through the station daily ever set foot in the historical portion of the building, where the Fantova kavárna (Fanta's café), opened in 1997 to commemorate the architect, is located.

Jaroslav Smola, an architect from the Kotas architectural studio, says that, unlike the Fantova section, will be restored in order to preserve its original look.

The main hall, on the other hand, which is a shining example of the '70s communist-era design, should be completely redone to respond to the growing demand for train transportation.