The reconstruction of the railway hub in Brno will cost about 73 billion according to the head of the Railway Administration

Brno – The reconstruction of the Brno railway hub, the main component of which is the relocation of the main station one kilometer south to the current lower station, is expected to cost about 73 billion crowns. This is based on information published today on platform X by Jiří Svoboda, the general director of the state Railway Administration. The central commission of the Ministry of Transport today approved the project's intention. The Railway Administration stated in a press release that construction should take place between 2028 and 2035.

According to Svoboda, the approval of the project's intention is a significant milestone in the preparation of the modernization of the entire hub. It is another of many necessary steps. The next step will be the preparation of project documentation by a company that succeeds in the tender. The Railway Administration also updated the cost estimate for the first time since the end of 2017, which at that time was approximately 50 billion crowns according to the feasibility study.

Decisions on how the state will finance the reconstruction of the hub will only be made in the coming years, said Pavel Tesař, spokesperson for the Railway Administration, to ČTK. According to earlier statements by Minister of Transport Martin Kupka (ODS), private capital is also in play, i.e., a form of a PPP project.

The reconstruction of the Brno hub is one of the priority transport projects not only from the perspective of the Czech Republic but also the European Union. The main station and the entire hub are to have a higher capacity to accommodate more trains than currently, and will also allow for the incorporation of high-speed lines in the future. In addition to the relocation of the station to the south and the discontinuation of the line from Horní Heršpice through the main station to Židenice, new lines will be created within the city. A new stop, Brno-Černovice, will also be established, and the Židenice station will be moved closer to Bubeníček Street.

Brno already has an architectural study for the new station and the space in front of it, where a transfer hub for public transport will be created, developed in previous years. The authors are the Dutch architectural firm Benthem Crouwel Architects in collaboration with West8. The construction of the new station will also require billion-dollar investments from the city to prepare the infrastructure that will service the station.

The city is now not counting on the new station being connected underground to the center and the northern part of the city by the metro, which has been discussed in Brno since the 1970s, and without which, according to transport experts, the situation in the north-south direction will be even worse than it is now. Councillor Petr Kratochvíl (ODS) spoke in March about the need to undertake more important transport constructions.

Next year, the Railway Administration plans to begin the first construction at the Brno hub, which is the modernization of the railway section Brno-Židenice – Brno-Černovice branch. This includes the construction of retaining walls with noise barriers and the reconstruction of bridges on Jílková and Filipínská streets. Work on the modernization of the Židenice station is also expected to begin.