Construction of the tram line to the Bohunice campus has begun in Brno

Brno - In Brno today, the largest construction of a tram line in the last quarter-century was ceremoniously initiated. It will connect Starý Lískovec and Bohunice with the university campus and the faculty hospital. It will relieve the overloaded and often delayed trolleybuses and buses. The construction company has begun conducting tests to determine the actual layout of utility networks and will work on their relocations. Actual construction of the tram line will begin next spring. The first trams are expected to start running to the hospital in three years, said the general director of the transport company, Miloš Havránek.

The costs amount to 1.4 billion crowns, with 85 percent of the costs being covered by European subsidies.

The campus area began developing about 15 years ago. Along with the faculty hospital and a nurse's hostel, the campus of Masaryk University was established, which includes several faculties, a large shopping center, the Moravian Regional Archives, and several administrative buildings that house a number of companies, including Kiwi.com, for example. "This is a construction that has no precedent in the modern history of public transport in Brno. I am glad that Brno has placed its trust in us and entrusted the transport company with ensuring the construction," Havránek said.

The line will disconnect from the current line approximately at the location of today's Osová stop, which will be moved closer to the city. It will then dive into a tunnel, which will exit at the hospital. The tunnel will be 619 meters long and will have one underground station named Nová Jihlavská. The final stop will be named Nemocnice Bohunice, from which a number of trolleybus and bus lines already depart today.

The journey by tram line 8 will take about 15 minutes from the main train station, and people will not suffer delays, as the tram will travel along a separate track for the entire distance. Until then, however, the residents of Brno will have to endure several months of tram closures between Švermová and Starý Lískovec, as well as short-term trolleybus closures between Osová and the Nemocnice Bohunice stop.

In the future, a cable car from the Pisárky depot is expected to facilitate travel to the campus, and its construction is gradually being prepared.

Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the tram network in Brno has not expanded much. In 1994, a line was opened through Nové sady and Renneská streets, which accelerated travel to Bohunice and Starý Lískovec; in Líšeň, the line was gradually extended by two stops from Kotlanova to Mifková, and in Královo Pole by one stop from the Technical Museum to the Technology Park. The city continues to prepare construction of lines to Stará Líšeň, Lesná, and the Kamechy housing estate. Next year, the line to Komárov is expected to reopen through Plotní Street.