The city leadership is not keen on building the controversial cable car mid-station on Ještěd

Liberec - The leadership of Liberec does not insist on the construction of the controversial intermediate station planned for the cable car to Ještěd. According to Deputy Mayor Jiří Janďourek (Mayors for the Liberec Region), they want to wait for the opinion of landscape experts and heritage conservationists before making a decision on whether it will be built.

"We are currently waiting for the assessment from the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and the landscape character assessment. I've always said that if someone from the relevant authorities or from the people assessing the landscape character tells me that it’s not appropriate, then that bridge ends immediately," said Janďourek, the Deputy Mayor of Liberec for architecture, public space, and transportation projects, to ČTK.

The design of the new cable car to Ještěd was presented by the city leadership along with the architects who are designing it, two months ago. The proposal included an intermediate station, which was not part of the previous cable car. This change does not sit well with some locals or the opposition in Liberec. They are concerned that it will disrupt the landscape character, as it is planned to be 40 meters high and will have an 80-meter long horizontal bridge leading from it.

Due to these concerns, the deputy organized a seminar for council members recently. "We clearly stated that we do not insist on the intermediate station. It is not a significant issue, but it improves the economics of the cable car. We explained our arguments, but if there is a common agreement that there will be no intermediate station, then we have no problem with that," Janďourek said.

He mentioned that they wanted to use a pole for the intermediate station, which will have to be built anyway to allow the cable car to operate all the way to the top of the mountain. The deputy designated the intermediate station as advantageous, as it would enable the operation of the cable car in cases where strong winds occur at the mountain's summit, but weather conditions a little lower would still allow for operation. The old cable car did not operate about fifteen times a year due to strong winds at the top of Ještěd. The deputy also thought that the intermediate station would be used by people who want to hike partway up the mountain or head out on trips elsewhere.

However, according to the deputy, the existence of the intermediate station is not a critical point for the construction of the new cable car. "If there is no intermediate station, then the project will definitely not suffer. That means, it does not depend at all on the intermediate station or the bridge," he added.

The cable car to Ještěd has been out of operation since the tragic accident in October 2021, when one of the two cabins fell after the pulling cable broke, resulting in the death of the conductor. At that time, the cable car belonged to Czech Railways, which decided not to operate it any further and sold it to Liberec for 38.6 million Czech koruna. The city is preparing to build a new cable car with an extension of the route by approximately 800 meters to nearly two kilometers. The planned cable car will be entirely new, including the stations. Construction is set to begin no earlier than 2027 or 2028, and it will be in operation at the earliest three to four years later. Janďourek previously estimated the costs at 450 million Czech koruna.