The planned relocation of the train station in Brno is uncertain after the elections

Brno - The Brno train station may not need to be moved from the city center as planned by the current city leadership, as indicated by the results of the municipal elections. All probable variants of the future coalition in Brno include the ČSSD, which has been against the relocation. The Social Democrats could govern with the ODS, possibly also with KDU-ČSL, or form a coalition against the ODS directly with opponents of the move. ČSSD leader Roman Onderka said today that he wants support across the political spectrum for any location of the station.
    The relocation of the train station is primarily advocated by the ODS with 19 mandates; the project should also be supported in the new council by six members of the KDU-ČSL and five communists. The Social Democrats have been opposed until now. They currently have 13 seats in the council, two more than before the elections. The main opponents are the Greens with seven seats and people around Senator Jiří Zlatuška, whose association gained five mandates in the council.
    Work on the project was supposed to start this year, but the construction has been delayed, and now the issuance of the zoning decision is awaited. However, the necessary change to the zoning plan has already been approved by the council in the past, so they would now have to suspend the project preparations. Onderka stated that he wants to have an analysis prepared that compares all the options.
    According to opponents of the move, the reconstruction of the railway junction with the station at its current location would cost 16 billion crowns, while the relocation is estimated by the city hall to cost 24 billion crowns.
    The city is now continuing to acquire the necessary land. It already owns part of it, while other areas are owned by České dráhy and the city company Jižní centrum. Between 20 to 40 percent of the required area still needs to be purchased. However, the project will be delayed by nearly a year compared to the original timelines and will start no earlier than the second half of next year. In the first phase, a terminal station is expected to be built for approximately 800 million.
    The reconstruction of the junction was also decided by the Social Democratic government in 2002. In 2004, the city hall organized a referendum. However, only a quarter of the voters participated, making the voting invalid, even though more than 80 percent of them were against the relocation.
    In Brno, two important corridors are to intersect - Gdańsk-Vienna and Berlin-Athens. Both railway axes were included among the 30 priority European projects by a decision of the European Parliament. According to former Brno councilors, the current form of the junction from the first half of the 19th century is chaotic and hinders the development of the city. Moreover, the current station allegedly does not meet the technical conditions for the introduction of modern high-speed trains.