Brno has been considering a tram line to Lesná for years, but the city district has rejected it

Brno - The Brno city council will address the unexpected stance of the representatives of the Brno-sever district in the coming weeks. Last week, the city district rejected the extension of the tram line from the Štefánikova district to Lesná to the Haškova loop, even though the city has had this plan for several years and has counted on it since the establishment of the housing estate in the 1960s and 1970s. According to Deputy Mayor Richard Mrázek (ANO), the city's stance will depend on whether more apartments are built in the Majdalenky area.

The representatives of Brno-sever are only inclined toward the option of leading the tram along Okružní Street to Halasovo Square. "The council will decide on the next steps after familiarizing itself with the district's stance on the presented study. If further development occurs in Majdalenky, the line would be a priority for the city. If not, priorities will be the lines to newly developing areas where tram access is completely lacking," mentioned Mrázek regarding the tram to the campus and from Stránská skála to Líšně.

Trams currently only serve a small part of the housing estate with 16,000 residents via a stop at Halasovo Square and a terminus at Čertova rokli. A larger part is without service from ecological and capacity transportation, and passengers must transfer when traveling to the city center. Most Brno housing estates have, albeit with delays, received tram transport. Vinohrady and Kohoutovice remain problematic to this day, where often overcrowded trolleybuses operate, and a new issue is the expanding Kamechy, which currently are only served by buses.

According to the transport company, the tram to Lesná via Seifertova Street would be advantageous for both passengers and the operation itself. "People would reach the center without changing, and instead of six to nine buses, we would run three trams," said the spokesperson for the transport company, Barbora Lukšová, to ČTK.

The arguments from the city district against the construction of the tram line include lower pedestrian safety when walking to the tram islands in the middle of the street and the lack of service to the western part of Lesná, which would still require bus transport. Additionally, the city district argues against the disapproval from the Metrology Institute and the existence of ZOOmarket. The Mayor of Brno-sever, Martin Maleček, also told ČTK that he sees noise from trams and their low utilization as risks.

According to Maleček, it would be appropriate for the direct bus line 46 to the center to be reinstated, as it operated during the disruption in Milady Horákové Street. "If gas buses were used, it would be ecological," he stated. However, the transport company can only have just under half of its fleet as gas buses.

The current situation, where it is necessary to transfer from some outlying parts of Brno when traveling to the center, has been in effect since 1995. At that time, buses operated to the center from nearly everywhere. The goal back then was to push non-ecological transport out of the center while simultaneously shortening the intervals of the backbone tram service. Just like most of Lesná, Vinohrady, Kohoutovice, Nový Lískovec, and all parts south of the D1 highway do not have a direct line to the center.