The tram line is returning to Plotní Street in Brno after 150 years

Brno - The tram line currently being constructed on Plotní Street in Brno is not the first time it has been in this street; it will return after a long 150 years. Historian of Brno's public transport Jiří Štursa reminded that tracks appeared on Plotní as early as 1869, when the horse-drawn tram started operating in Brno, and were intended to serve as a freight line between the stations now called the main and lower stations, he told ČTK.

"However, the line existed only briefly, as the railway company of the state railways, which operated both stations in Brno, built a railway connecting line, and the tram line for freight transport to the lower station no longer made sense," Štursa explained. At that time, the Northern Railway of Emperor Ferdinand and the private State Railway Company operated in Brno, both having separate freight stations. The current main station was once a dual station for passenger transport, housing both companies. The State Railway Company had warehouses in the area of today's bus station on Benešova Street, and the Northern Railway of Emperor Ferdinand in the area known as Small America.

The tracks for the freight tram ran under the viaduct over Křenová and turned right behind it. They continued to Trnitá Street, then turned into Zvonařka Street and from there into Plotní and to the lower, at that time Rosice Station, which was also operated by the State Railway Company.

The connecting line had a more direct route and continued south directly from the current main station along an embankment around today's Tesco store and Vaňkovka to the Rosice station via the current bus station at Zvonařka. The embankment was practically intact until the beginning of the 21st century, before the Vaňkovka shopping center was built. "The last parts of the embankment disappeared only last year," Štursa noted.

When the tram line could not serve freight transport, it found use in 1869 and 1870 as a site for technical-police tests of newly delivered horse-drawn tram cars. In 1871, workers dismantled the tracks.

Freight transport was a completely standard part of tram operations in the 19th century. It involved the so-called American system of trams. In the USA, it was common for cars for passenger transport to be pulled by horses and for freight transport by steam locomotives. Freight transport also operated in Brno for several decades until the beginning of the 20th century. Many factories had tram sidings. "The main effort was to transport goods to the military clothing depot, which was located on today’s Štefánikova Street," Štursa stated.