Šimonovský: Brno may lose subsidies for the relocation of the train station

Brno - Brno could lose state and European funds intended for the reconstruction of 15 kilometers of railway and the construction of a new main train station, believes MP and former Minister of Transport Milan Šimonovský (KDU-ČSL). He told reporters yesterday that if the new city leadership decides not to relocate the station but to build it in the center, the necessary change of the zoning plan would delay the project so much that it would not be possible to utilize the European subsidies for it in the planning period from 2007 to 2013. For the people of Brno, this would mean a loss of 25 billion crowns, said the MP. The city coalition rejects such a scenario.
According to Deputy Mayor Ladislav Macko (ČSSD), the priority is to obtain subsidies from Europe and the state. If it were to threaten that further comparisons of both variants of the future train station would prevent the acquisition of subsidies, politicians, according to Macko, would stop discussing and proceed with the construction plotted in the zoning plan. The train station would then be relocated from the center of Brno 800 meters to the south, as planned by the previous leadership of Brno. The project is currently undergoing zoning proceedings, and according to the deputy, more than 100 appeals have been submitted to the building authority.
The new coalition at the Brno city hall has brought further assessment of the variants of the future Brno train station. It consists of opponents of the station's relocation from ČSSD, the Green Party, and the Brno 2006 grouping. The fourth coalition party - the Christian Democrats - supports the relocation of the station and has participated in its planning in previous electoral periods in a coalition with the Civic Democrats.
The Czech Republic has been promised 180 billion crowns from Brussels for transport projects over the next seven years. According to Šimonovský, the regions will compete not so much for European money but for which projects will receive the necessary state shares for co-financing. "I say there will be very little Czech money, so that is now the biggest battle," said Šimonovský.
According to the politician, apart from the train station, the planned expansion of the D1 motorway in Brno or the planned construction of a speed road from Brno to Vienna could also be at risk from South Moravian transport projects. According to plans, it is supposed to pass through the Novomlýnské reservoirs. However, environmentalists disagree with this and demand its routing through Břeclav to utilize the existing D2 motorway. Šimonovský described the situation if both projects were to be abandoned as a catastrophe. "The European connection from the north to the south through Moravia would end in Brno, so we would be clogged with cars here," believes the MP.