The construction of the new railway station in Brno will begin around the end of 2009

Brno - The construction of a new passenger station in Brno, which will be moved 800 meters south of the current location, is expected to start no later than the end of 2009. The investor of the project, the Czech Railway Administration (SŽDC), announced this to journalists today. The second option for the reconstruction of the Brno railway hub with the station at its current location, proposed by the Greens last year before the municipal elections, is apparently already off the table.
    The General Director of SŽDC, Jan Komárek, said at a press conference that a feasibility study, necessary for obtaining European subsidies, will be completed by the end of the year. The company will then begin preparing the project documentation. If the station were to remain in its current location, the investor would lose subsidies, as such a plan is not prepared.
    "Preparing an entirely new project would take at least six to seven years. European subsidies for the period 2007 to 2013 must be invested within two years of their expiration, which would not be possible at all. Either we do nothing, or we will continue with the original plan," said the Mayor of Brno, Roman Onderka.
    Nevertheless, during the summer, the city commissioned a professional analysis of both options. The alternative assessment is one of the conditions for obtaining European subsidies, and the second aim of the analysis was, according to Onderka, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each option. Based on the findings, the original project is now being adjusted. So far, the total costs of the reconstruction have been reduced from 30 to about 20 billion crowns.
    The city center may not lose the tracks after all. Mid-week, Brno councilor Josef Veselý proposed a compromise solution, suggesting that only long-distance and freight trains should run on the new railway corridor, while regional services would access the current station via a grade-separated rapid transit line. "We do not yet know the detailed specifics of his proposal, but we will definitely address it in the working group. It seems that it would not be a drastic intervention. The main part of the project is precisely the city bypass and the connection of high-speed corridors," said Komárek.
    The reconstruction of the Brno railway hub consists of several constructions. The first, the construction of a marshalling yard where trains will be assembled, repaired, and cleaned, began this October and will be completed in mid-2009. After that, the building of the new passenger station and modernization of the transit will begin. The total costs are around 20 billion crowns, and SŽDC hopes to obtain about seven billion crowns from European funds.
    The final part of the project is the reconstruction of the city infrastructure, which will begin next year. The costs of around 3.5 billion crowns will be shared by the city of Brno and the South Moravian Region.