ÚOHS suspended the proceedings regarding the study on the renovation of the train station in Brno

Brno - The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) has halted the administrative proceedings regarding the selection of a contractor for the feasibility study on the reconstruction of the Brno railway junction. Since the Railway Infrastructure Administration (SŽDC) signed a contract with the winning applicant during the proceedings, it has become irrelevant, said ÚOHS spokesman Martin Švanda today. The decision is not final, and the company Helika, which prompted the initiation of the administrative proceedings, can file an appeal.
    SŽDC recently signed a contract with a consortium of three companies: Sudop Brno, Moravia Consult, and AF City Plan. Sudop is the author of the delayed station study. The consortium won the public contract after SŽDC excluded Helika for failing to report changes in leadership and not providing extracts from the criminal registers. They had offered a price one million crowns lower. Brno's Deputy Mayor Martin Ander (Green Party) today questioned the impartiality of the feasibility study given Sudop's position.
    The feasibility study should take into account all aspects of the new station, not just railway transport issues but also connections to the city's transport system and public transport. The options include a location under Petrov and the delayed station at the site of today's Lower Freight Station.
    In April, the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA) organized a debate among experts who are more in favor of keeping the station in the city center and pointed out the problems of building a new district in the case of relocating the station nearly a kilometer away from the city. According to ČKA President Ivan Plicka, a key urban-economic-social study has not yet been created to determine whether Brno is capable of building a southern center next to the new station as a viable city. He also expressed support for a two-round design competition.
    In the past five years, the reconstruction of the railway junction has become a much more political than technical topic in Brno, with factions of supporters for one or the other option publicly accusing each other. The current city leadership comprises the Green Party and the Žít Brno movement, who want the station in the center, while ANO has not yet made a clear statement, and the Christian Democrats, who favored the relocation, are waiting to see what the study will reveal.
    Currently, it is expected that SŽDC, or rather the Ministry of Transport, will decide on the option in the autumn of next year when the study is to be completed, and when a referendum in Brno is to take place concurrently with the regional elections. Brno needs a new station because the current one cannot handle more trains during peak traffic. Moreover, according to EU plans, Brno is to become a crossroads of two trans-European railway corridors in the future. Discussions about the reconstruction of the station have been ongoing in Brno, with breaks, for nearly a hundred years.