Brno has a valid permit for the construction of a cable car, but has not yet conducted a cost analysis

Brno - This week, the Brno Transport Company obtained a valid building permit for the cable car between the Pisárky depot and the university campus in Bohunice, according to the website Zdopravy.cz. The construction is estimated to cost 950 million crowns, but the city does not want to cover the entire amount from its own budget and will seek grants from EU funds, said the city hall spokesman Filip Poňuchálek to ČTK. The city and the transport company do not yet have a study outlining the costs and benefits of the construction. According to Poňuchálek, the analysis will be part of a potential grant application.

There is no consensus in Brno regarding the cable car project, not even among politicians. The spokesperson for the transport company, Hana Tomaštíková, wrote to ČTK that the university campus and the neighboring teaching hospital, along with their surroundings, create a high demand for transport, noting that about 40,000 people travel to the area by public transport daily. Currently, the area is served by public transport from all directions, including trolleybuses, buses, and, since the end of 2022, trams, which have significantly eased other forms of transport. It ensures a capacity and fast connection not just to the city center. The analysis should show whether a facility with an hourly capacity of 2,000 passengers is truly needed and whether the current transport is sufficient.

Opposition to the construction comes from ornithologists, who fear damage to a unique large wintering habitat for birds, as well as some politicians. The Greens are planning legal actions and intend to present their planned activities against the construction at a press conference on Monday. Advocates of the cable car argue in its favor that many people arrive at the campus and its surroundings daily and that those attending events in the multifunctional hall next to the Pisárky depot, which is under construction, could use the cable car. Opponents of this view argue that the campus and the hall are already adequately served by trams, trolleybuses, and buses.

It is still unclear from which grant source the city would finance the construction. Until now, it has not been possible to finance urban cable car constructions from European Union funds. The spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport, Jan Jakovljevič, wrote to ČTK that the ministry did not have nor plans to create a grant source for the construction of cable cars.

Talks about the cable car to the campus began in Brno after 2010, with the then-mayor Roman Onderka (ČSSD) selecting it as a topic in 2014. His deputy for transport, Robert Kotzian (then ODS), argued that an economic study was needed to determine whether the construction would be worthwhile.

Brno faces several expensive tram line constructions, which will cost billions of crowns. This includes the line to the Kamechy housing estate and the construction of a complex of lines that must be completed before the first trains depart from the new main station, which is currently planned to be finished in 11 years.