Weekly review no. 56
15.11.2024
Municipalities take legal action against new Prague-Dresden line
It was an important step on the way to the new railroad line from Dresden to Prague. In June, the district parliament in Ústí nad Labem approved the modified regional plan and thus the planned route on the territory of the Ústí district. This brought a lengthy process to an end for the time being. However, the critics have not fallen silent. Two municipalities have now filed a lawsuit against the parliament's decision with the district court in Ústí. These are the small town of Chlumec at the foot of the Ore Mountains and the village of Hrobce on the southern side of the Bohemian Central Mountains. Both communities are located at the end point of a planned tunnel. Chlumec at the end of the Ore Mountains tunnel and Hrobce at the planned exit of the tunnel through the Bohemian Central Mountains.
At the heart of the complaint is criticism of the choice of route. "No other variants were examined on our municipal territory, only the one in which the tube of the tunnel comes back to the surface exactly between our two districts of Chlumec and Stradov," says the mayor of Chlumec Veronika Srnková. In the case of Hrobce, three options were available. However, two of them would only have been a sham because they were rejected by the Ministry of Defense from the outset, according to the mayor of Hrobce, Kateřina Hlaváčková. However, both municipalities are also concerned about the environmental impact and fear increased dust and noise pollution in connection with the new line. Real values were not used in the public consultation for the amendment to the regional plan. "The expected noise pollution was only calculated on the basis of passenger traffic and not for freight traffic," criticizes Mayor Srnková.
It is not yet clear what impact the lawsuit will have on the timetable. The investor, the state railroad administration Správa železnic (SŽ), is continuing to prepare the project on the basis of the modified regional plan. But time is pressing. After years of wrangling over the route, Transport Minister Martin Kupka had demanded a decision this year in order to keep pace with the German side. However, if the district court were to overturn the parliamentary decision, the further schedule would be in jeopardy.
Správa železnic is planning the first construction work on the Prague-Lovosice section in three years. This is scheduled for completion in 2030, making it the first to be finished. Commissioning of the section through the Ore Mountains is scheduled for 2038 at the earliest.
Ústí district has new leadership
The Ústí district parliament elected a new leadership at its constituent meeting on Friday. The new district governor is former Environment Minister Richard Brabec (ANO). The ANO party had clearly won the district elections in September. However, it needed coalition partners to gain a majority. It will continue to govern with the ODS for the next four years. The Lepší Sever list was added as a new third partner. All three parties have a majority of 37 to 18 votes in parliament.
Ticket app for the Ústí region now in German
The "DÚKapka" application is an app for purchasing tickets for public transport in the entire Ústí Region. Three years after its launch, the application is now also available in German. Day trippers can use it to purchase tickets for local transport in Bohemian Switzerland, the Bohemian Central Mountains or the Ore Mountains - including day tickets or group tickets.
For most day tourists, the Elbe-Labe ticket is the first choice, which is valid for a whole day in the entire area of the VVO transport association and in the Ústí region until 4 a.m. the following day. However, occasionally it is also worth buying individual tickets if, for example, you have a Germany ticket or only want to reach destinations near the border without a subsequent return journey. Tickets can now also be purchased in the Czech Republic without any problems. In principle, this was already possible before, but only in Czech.
The Ústi district stretches from Klášterec nad Ohří in the northwest to Varnsdorf and Rumburk in the Schluckenauer Zipfel. In the south, the ticket extends to Hněvice and in some cases even beyond the tariff border, for example to Mělník in Central Bohemia.
However, anyone planning a longer stay in Bohemian Switzerland has another advantage with the app. As a result of the forest fire, tourists staying at least two nights will receive a free network pass for the entire district for up to 7 days. The offer applies not only to Bohemian Switzerland in the narrower sense, but also to the so-called Bohemian Switzerland tourist region, which also includes the Schluckenau tip and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in the Elbe Valley and on the left bank of the Elbe in the area of the Tissa Walls and the Děčínský Sněžník (High Snow Mountain).
In addition, the Ústí Region is always preparing special offers for the app. In September, for example, anyone who installed the app was able to download the day network ticket free of charge on International Car Free Day.
New Pirate party leader with a new direction
The Pirates have elected former Prague mayor Zdeněk Hřib as their new chairman. The new election had become necessary because the long-standing chairman Ivan Bartoš had resigned from office following the clear defeat in the regional and Senate elections in the fall. Bartoš was subsequently dismissed as regional minister by Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which also led to the resignation of the other Pirate ministers. Only Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský remained in office and resigned from the Pirate Party.
Hřib promised a new course. He wanted to ensure that the Pirates were united and less lost in cultural battles and gender issues. This can be seen as a rejection of the rather progressive course of the previous party leadership. At the same time, Hřib plans to change decision-making processes within the party to give more powers to the chairman and the executive committee. To date, the Pirate Party has been very strongly oriented towards grassroots democracy. For example, anyone who wants to be on candidate lists needs 60 percent approval.
Some party members had already resigned in recent weeks, followed by others after the election party conference, mainly from the left-wing spectrum, to which Hřib's opponent Lukáš Wagenknecht also belongs. One of the more well-known resignations was that of former MEP Marcel Kolaja.
The situation for the Pirates is serious. According to surveys, only 6.5 percent of eligible voters wanted to vote for the Pirates in October. It remains to be seen whether the new chairman can turn the mood around. His election victory against Wagenknecht was extremely close.
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