Brno has its first official document that admits to a train station in the center

Source
Lucie Kučerová

Publisher
ČTK
05.03.2012 18:50

Brno - The Brno city council today approved the historically first document acknowledging the train station in the center rather than moving it. Brno aims to use this document to lobby for its status as one of the key cities on the future map of major railway hubs in Europe. According to the mayor's deputy, Robert Kotzian (ODS), there is a risk that Brno will not be part of this network in the future, with only Prague and Ostrava representing the Czech Republic. The opposition Greens succeeded in formulating that Brno should be included in the network "regardless of the future location of the passenger station". However, they still voted against the document.
    According to councilor Martin Ander (SZ), it has not been convincingly proven that Brno would lose its position at the crossroads of main lines. Kotzian denied this. While he mentioned that there is no danger of "tracks being removed" anywhere around Brno, he stated that in extreme cases, both main railway corridors currently intersecting in the city could bypass Brno in the future. "This concerns the ambitions of the planned development of the transport network for the next 40 years," said the deputy to ČTK.
    In Brno today, the Baltic-Adriatic corridor runs from north to south and the corridor from German Hamburg to Cypriot Lefkosia intersects. However, according to Kotzian, the first corridor could face competition from a route via Žilina and Bratislava. "The second could be diverted via České Budějovice and Austrian Linz," stated the deputy. He added that the Ministry of Transport expects that for freight transport, the main route heading north-south would become the one through Olomouc, Otrokovice, and Břeclav.
    Ander would actually welcome such a solution, claiming that decisions about rail transport routes were made earlier. "What would Brno gain if coal trains from Katowice traveled through Brno?" said the councilor. However, according to Kotzian, freight transport also has economic significance, as transshipment points could be established in Brno, creating jobs. "Cities have always grown at crossroads; that had its positives in a higher standard of living as well as negatives. A person has to choose where they want to live," he said.
    Additionally, according to Kotzian, it concerns investments, such as that in the Brno-Přerov line. Currently, a single-track railway connects the cities, meaning trains must give way to each other at stations, which slows down transportation and reduces the number of services that can operate along this route. For example, passenger trains do not run today on the Brno-Vyškov route, and municipalities along the route are served only by buses, even though they have train stations.
    The councilors' resolution today requests that the state assert four demands in negotiations with the European Union. They want Brno to be recognized as one of the nodes of the main railway network, to maintain the crossing of two corridors in Brno, not to divert freight railway transport from Brno, and to ensure that the reconstruction of the Brno-Přerov line is included among key railway investments.

Brno has its first official document that admits to a train station in the center

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