The regional city of
Liberec
Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preser ...
is one of the seven cities in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
where tram transport is present. The tram system is conjoined with an interurban tramway branch to
Jablonec nad Nisou
Jablonec nad Nisou (; german: Gablonz an der Neiße) is a city in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 45,000 inhabitants. It is the second-largest city in the region. It is a local centre for education, and is known for its glass ...
. It is operated by ''Dopravní podnik měst Liberce a Jablonce nad Nisou, a.s.'' The track system is approximately long with the branch between Liberec and Jablonec nad Nisou measuring around .
Narrow-gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...
tracks were used since inception of the system in 1898 and a part of the network was decommissioned in the 1960s. A gradual reconstruction of the city line took place in the 1990s, where tracks were reconstructed to
standard-gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
railway.
The branch between
Liberec
Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preser ...
and
Jablonec nad Nisou
Jablonec nad Nisou (; german: Gablonz an der Neiße) is a city in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 45,000 inhabitants. It is the second-largest city in the region. It is a local centre for education, and is known for its glass ...
is out of service since July 2021 for upgrading and regauging to bring the network to an all standard-gauge track.
History
Early years
On September 11, 1894, the Liberec City Council approved a proposal for the construction of an electric tram line with a .
It was at a time when the only tram operation in the territory of today's Czech Republic was in Prague (Křižík's electric railway at Letná). Construction began in May 1897 and the line was completed three months later. On 25 August 1897, the first line in Liberec was inaugurated.
Separate proposals for a tram connection between Liberec and Jablonec appeared, and the initiative was lead mainly by the Jablonec Electric Railways, with the Ministry of Railways rejecting the proposals for many years due to the existence of a parallel railway line. The electric tram quickly became the main mode of transport in Liberec, carrying 800,000 passengers in 1898. New lines to Rochlice (1899), to Růžodol I (1904) and Horní Hanychov (1912) were built.
The tram expansion was halted by
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Many employees enlisted and passenger operation was reduced significantly. Trams were also used to transport wounded soldiers to the city hospitals.
Interwar period
Meetings took place to introduce three new lines, but no new tracks were built in the end. On 13 December 1924, line numbering was also introduced for the first time. In 1929, the network transported 8 million passengers, however, during the economic crisis the number dropped to 5.4 million and income losses of 1 million crowns had to be solved by placing advertising boards on cars. In 1930s, the line ending in Růžodol was extended by about 700 metres to the Letka restaurant, and in 1934, a connecting line was created from the station to the viaduct.
The signing of the
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, Germany, the United Kingdom, French Third Republic, France, and Fa ...
meant that Liberec was seized and annexed by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. On 8 October 1938, Nazi troops entered the city and tram traffic was interrupted. In turn, Liberec was established as the county town of the
Sudetenland
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
.
Socialist era
On 10 March 1949, ''Dopravní podnik měst Liberce a Jablonce nad Nisou, a.s.'' was incorporated as the operator connecting tram systems in
Liberec
Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preser ...
and
Jablonec nad Nisou
Jablonec nad Nisou (; german: Gablonz an der Neiße) is a city in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 45,000 inhabitants. It is the second-largest city in the region. It is a local centre for education, and is known for its glass ...
. The main construction that took place in Liberec tram transport after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
was the interconnection of the Jablonec and Liberec tram networks in 1955 according to plans that had been in existence since around 1900s.
Construction on the
Liberec
Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preser ...
-
Jablonec tramway started in 1947 and the line was finished in 1954 as a single-track railway becoming operational on 1 January 1955. 6MT type trams were used on the line delivered from Česká Lípa. On 31 October 1960, the lines to Rochlice and Růžodol were decommissioned and within three years, all tracks on the lines disappeared. In the 70s, the intercity line to Jablonec was completely reconstructed. At the end of the 1980s, the need to adjust the track gauge from to began to appear increasingly important as it was present in all cities of the then
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
(except
Bratislava
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...
which still to this day runs on ).
Recent times
The reconstruction of track gauge did not take place until the 1990s.
The reconstruction took place in several stages from 1990 to 1998. On 14 August 1998, the first trams on the 1435 mm gauge were put into operation in Liberec.
After the turn of the millennium, T2 and T3 trams were modernized. Most T2R cars were decommissioned before 2006. After 2006, only a couple of modernized T2R trams remained in operation. Deliveries of Tatra's T3 PLF low-floor variant followed between 2005 and 2007. In 2012, a prototype of the EVO2 tram was put into operation, which remains the only EVO2 in Liberec as of today.
On 17 November 2018, the last two operating
Tatra T2 trams in the world, the T2R cars No. 18 and 19, were retired.
On 17 July 2021, trams on the were in regular operation for the last time on the interurban line to Jablonec. The next day, construction work began on the regauging of the section U Lomu – Vratislavice. Operation on the normal gauge line to Vratislavice was resumed on 6 November 2021. Vratislavice - Jablonec section is planned to reopen by April 2023.
Routes
Liberec services
All Liberec services converge at the central tram point, Fügnerova station.
Interurban services
There is one service on the
Liberec
Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preser ...
and
Jablonec track; line 11. The journey takes around 30 minutes. It is not in operation since July 2021 and will return to service after upgrades are complete.
Other similar interurban tramway lines in the Czech Republic include
Most
Most or Möst or ''variation'', may refer to:
Places
* Most, Kardzhali Province, a village in Bulgaria
* Most (city), a city in the Czech Republic
** Most District, a district surrounding the city
** Most Basin, a lowland named after the city
** A ...
-
Litvínov
Litvínov (; german: Leutensdorf) is a town in Most District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. It is known as an industrial centre.
Administrative parts
Litvínov is made up of 12 town parts an ...
,
Ostrava
Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...
-
Kyjovice and
Brno
Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
-
Modřice
Modřice (; german: Mödritz) is a town in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,600 inhabitants.
Geography
Modřice is located about south of Brno. It lies in the Dyje–Svratka Valley. It is s ...
.
Ticketing
Regular Liberec public transport tariffs apply both on Liberec and Jablonec services as all lines are part of the public transport network in Liberec. In the past, there was a zone tariff on the Liberec-Jablonec line and for this reason, conductors were still operating at a time when operation without conductors was already introduced in Liberec and other Czech cities. All tramcars are equipped with ticket vending machines.
Rolling stock
See also
*
History of Liberec
Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preser ...
*
List of tram and light rail transit systems
The following is a list of cities that have current tram/streetcar (including heritage trams/heritage streetcars), or light rail systems as part of their regular public transit systems. In other words, this list only includes systems which ...
*
List of town tramway systems in the Czech Republic
This is a list of town tramway systems in the Czech Republic. It includes all tram systems, past and present; cities with currently operating systems, and those systems themselves, are indicated in bold and blue background colored rows. The u ...
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Website of DPMLJ - network operator
{{Urban public transport in the Czech Republic
Tram transport in the Czech Republic
Railway lines in the Czech Republic
Metre gauge railways in the Czech Republic
Liberec
Jablonec nad Nisou District