Brno councilors will say today where they want the new train station

Brno - Brno city councillors will vote today on where they would like the train station to be in the future. Whether in the shifted position on the site of today's freight lower station, or if they would prefer to move it only slightly from the current station towards the warehouses known as Little America. According to the current statements of the political clubs, the vast majority are in favor of the shift; only Žít Brno and the Green Party support a station in the center. Brno's stance will be advisory for the final decision of the government, which is likely to be in May.

Regional councillors also voted in January, mostly in favor of moving the train station. An expert opinion will be provided by the Railway Transport Administration and the Ministry of Transport.

Before the vote on the station, the councillors will return to the mayor's appeal for Deputy Matěj Hollan (Žít Brno) to resign from the transportation area. It is possible that Hollan will comply with the appeal, and the council will decide to whom it will be assigned, or the council might remove the transportation area from Hollan and allocate it to another. Mayor Petr Vokřál (ANO) is dissatisfied with how the area is currently managed.

The shifted station would be located one kilometer south of the current one and, according to a feasibility study, it will cost over 40 billion crowns; the completion of urban surface transport would cost over two billion. The construction duration is estimated to be more than five years, and its start is possible no earlier than 2020, but likely later. A new station and a complete reconstruction of the node are necessary because the current station is no longer sufficient to meet the growing demand.

Proponents of the opposite option - a station in the center argue that it is more advantageous for travelers because they can get around Brno more easily and quickly, and the city would not face such significant traffic complications as in the case of the shift. The cost of construction comes out to be the same or only slightly higher depending on the sub-variant. Construction would begin several years later as adjustments to the zoning plan would be needed.

The city commissioned a public opinion poll, which revealed that more people want the station in the center. This led to a rift in the coalition, but from the agreement process on Monday, it emerged that none of the parties are interested in breaking up the coalition.

The potential shift of the station would cause further traffic complications in the city according to the feasibility study; therefore, the Christian Democrats pushed for the proposal to include the start of a north-south rail diamond project. This is a dual-track tunnel for light regional rail that would lead from the station in Řečkovice or Královo Pole further through the city center, through the current and new station in the shifted position towards Chrlice. There, the track would continue above ground towards Slavkov. The diamond would essentially function like the Prague metro with stations on average a kilometer apart and should take on a significant portion of the transportation load in the north-south direction. The study and construction have now also been initiated by the Ministry of Transport, with costs possibly between ten and twenty billion crowns.