ROUTE FUNCTION
LIST OF STOPS
- 14 October 1957: selected services are temporarily extended to the Janův most stop in Kateřinky, probably as a reinforcement of line 13 to the then industrially active Kateřinky. Later these services end at the Pavlovice Tesla stop (today's Pavlovice křižovatka).
- 1962: in the morning hours and on Sundays the interval was shortened from 60 to 30 minutes, and two years later to 20 minutes.
- In 1967 there is already mention of a separate line 12 on the Pavlovice Tesla - Fügnerova - Ruprechtice náměstí route instead of line 12-14.
- The peak interval was shortened from 10 to 8 minutes.
- 16 February 1970: a reinforcement line X was introduced on the Nám. Bojovníků za mír (today's nám. Dr. E. Beneše) - Rychtářská section until a comprehensive solution for serving Ruprechtice, prepared by the ÚHA of the Liberec Municipal National Committee, was in place. Later that year this line received the number 14.
- 1 June 1970: the off-peak interval was shortened from 20 to 15 minutes. The peak interval was 8 minutes, so on the Fügnerova - Ruprechtice section a 4-minute interval was achieved thanks to interleaving with line X (line 14 from 2 November).
- 1978: due to alterations of náměstí Míru in Ruprechtice, turning buses around and two-way operation along Ruprechtická street are no longer possible. A semi-circular operation thus arises along Ruprechtická - Vrchlického and back via Hlávkova, which persists to this day, only under the heading of line 25.
- 1984: the peak interval was shortened to 7 minutes.
- 1 September 1990: after a major optimisation of the route network, the line takes on a completely new route identical to the original line 2 extended to Pavlovice: Rochlice - Fügnerova - Růžodol I - Pavlovice Letná/Růžodol Mlýn. In Rochlice the line ended at Poštovní náměstí and ran along tř. Dr. Milady Horákové. At the other end of the route it already took on its present form, but selected services ended at the Růžodol Mlýn stop.
- 1992: due to the poor economic situation, line 17 was discontinued. Selected line 12 services are thus extended to Stráž nad Nisou to make up for this loss.
- 1 January 1996: the line was rerouted in its southern part to the Rochlice estate, in the northern part the operation of the Růžodol Mlýn and Stráž nad Nisou branches was ended, and it thus takes on, save for minor details, its present form: PAVLOVICE LETNÁ – FÜGNEROVA – ZELENÉ ÚDOLÍ – PEKÁRNY/BROUMOVSKÁ.
- 1 October 2017: selected services at weekends and on weekdays in the evening hours newly call at the Polní stop.
- 1 September 2018: selected services newly run all the way to the Pavlovice křižovatka stop.
A note to begin with: the Zelené Údolí - Pekárny section can be found under line 23!
There is no driver who does not know line 12. Rather than a line, line 12 is a little subsystem of the public transport network. The number of its variants exceeds a dozen, so it is not even possible to cover them all here. Overcrowding of services and large delays are very common. In the upper centre in particular there are several awkward, even dangerous spots that have to be passed safely with an articulated bus. We will start with one of the longest variants, which includes the most usual section Pavlovice Letná - Fügnerova - Zelené Údolí. Selected services continue onward to the Broumovská estate. This variant can be seen more often at weekends than on a weekday. The following round was made with an Irisbus Citybus #307.
During weekday peaks, the services to Broumovská and back more often use the direct variant, that is, without the detour to Zelené Údolí. Such services are in the following footage — there with an Iveco Urbanway #720 in 2020, and back with an articulated SOR NSG 18 #585 from 2024.
A special, not very common variant of line 12 is its linking with line 14, which currently happens early in the morning and once in the afternoon. You can enjoy the afternoon run of this number-switching service in the following video, which captures the typical jams of the beginning peak near Globus and in the centre. These jams cause line 12 services to bunch up frequently, as happened in this case too, when I caught up with the previous service. It was again with an Iveco Urbanway #720. This variant also captures some line 12 services calling at the Polní stop.
As a point of interest, here is another number-switching service, this time an evening one. These are the last two departures of line 12 towards Pavlovice, which at the Pavlovice křižovatka stop switch to line 28 and continue to Radčice. The departures from Fügnerova at 22:40 and 23:10 are collective, and in this video you can hear the dispatcher's departure signal. Beyond the Pavlovice Letná stop you can see a line 25 service which, at the Pavlovice junction, switches to line 13 and runs on that service all the way to Janův Most. From Radčice, after a quick turnaround, it runs only to Růžodol I and then to the garages. Filming took place on a frosty winter night with an Iveco Urbanway CNG #532. Judge for yourself how demanding the Radčice section is. If you are attentive, you will notice that just before Radčice I had a certain surprise.
For a rare but very simple trip to Pekárny, take a look at line 23!
It would be hard to find a line 12 service from the city to Liberec's largest housing estate, Rochlice, that is not hopelessly full. Peak, evening or weekend, it makes no difference. At peak the buses run at short intervals, mostly articulated, and even so it often is not enough. But the journey does not take long, so it does not really matter much. On the other side of the city the line passes through the oldest and historically most interesting corners, to finally reach the second-largest Liberec estate. There, however, more lines run, so the buses are nowhere near as full as on the first half. Surge demand, on the other hand, is taken care of by a number of schools.
I will begin the journey from that second estate at the very north of Liberec — the Letná estate in the Pavlovice district. Before that, however, I must not omit the Pavlovice křižovatka – Pavlovice Letná section, along which a few selected line 12 services run. It is an interesting section from the large turning loop with a rich history, which I have described in more detail, for example, under line 24, which runs there most often. Climbing the steep hill through an overgrown valley, we reach the Pavlovice Letná loop, where most services begin and end.
The classic Letná estate
At first, nothing interesting really happens; the line passes through a mix of panel blocks and older houses. There is the classic socialist service centre, where once there was probably a Jednota and a few small shops; now it is mainly a non-stop shop and a few small shops. Right opposite stands the Secondary School of Engineering, Construction and Transport, with an interesting building that at least several of my colleagues from the Liberec transport company passed through. A little further on we pass, on the right, a small sports centre with several pitches, a speedway stadium and the only Liberec campsite, with a poor reputation. On the left first houses, then more panel blocks, behind which Jabloňová Primary School is hidden. After the junction the surroundings suddenly open up and we find ourselves on the very first modern retail area in Liberec. We find three supermarkets here, a DIY store and several other shops, for example the well-known hardware store. When someone says they are going to the hardware store, they always mean this one.
We cross the cycle path and a snowman
Descending the little hill, we reach the bridge over the Nisa river with a view of the equestrian grounds and the Oder–Neisse cycle path. Beyond the bridge follows a roundabout, part of the notorious "snowman". Lucky that we only pass it along the edge; even so it can give line 12 a hard time at peak and create large delays and irregularities in operation. When the situation is very bad, a replacement route "via the horsies" is created, which leads past the mentioned equestrian grounds. Beyond the roundabout comes the area called Růžodol I. Here, long ago, the first tram route in Liberec ended, but today nothing recalls it. Surge demand is taken care of by students of the F. X. Šalda Grammar School. That is fairly far away, but line 14, which runs closer to it, runs too infrequently to be good service. Then comes the S-bend of Londýnská street past old villas, and the line emerges onto another bridge over the Nisa, this time markedly smaller, and in this case too it crosses the well-known cycle path. The problem is that it crosses it on the level, so the driver is not pleased when a cyclist, on a Sunday morning with empty roads on a clearly visible section, nevertheless calls up a green light, and the poor souls on the bus thus have to wait. But never mind; through ever-denser development we finally reach the historic centre of old Liberec.
Through the centre of old Reichenberg
Today the hub of activity is a little further on, but the interested Liberec local knows that we are passing places where it all began long ago. The historic centre begins with the Church of the Finding of the Holy Cross, built on the site of a plague burial ground. It was the second church in Liberec. Then we have to weave through a narrow little street between tall houses, where a bus and a car barely fit (the cars usually do not mind, though, and try to give us a bit of a hard time). After passing through this dark little street, a light-filled square suddenly appears, which could also tell many a tale. It was precisely around this square that old Reichenberg once arose. So it is no coincidence that on one side it adjoins the oldest standing houses in Liberec — the Wallenstein houses — and on the other the oldest church in Liberec, the Church of St Anthony, dating perhaps from 1579. Right by it the street narrows again into the built-up area, and just a few metres further we pass the corner of today's hub of activity, namely náměstí Dr. Edvarda Beneše and, opposite, the Liberec City Hall. There remains a stop right between two of the most beautiful buildings in Liberec — the Vienna-style town hall and the F. X. Šalda Theatre — and it is already time to join one of Liberec's traffic arteries, Sokolská street. Getting from the historic centre onto this artery is sometimes a tough nut too. One thing is the frequent queues, another the complicated turn with a lack of space. The turn in the dense development is so sharp that the bus always has to go briefly across the oncoming lane. So at a place where queues often form, the bus has to let cars through from both sides, even though it is turning right. After a moment the development throws us out onto the largest and most complicated junction, Šaldovo náměstí, and at once we find ourselves by a product of modern times — the Plaza shopping centre. From the Šalďák we descend a few hundred metres along the cramped Rumunská street to the Fügnerova terminal, where a big exchange of passengers takes place.
An estate, another estate, or the bakeries?
From a mostly reasonably occupied bus it becomes an overcrowded bus. But what can you do; on we go, the other terminus is closer. The question, though, is which one, because line 12 has 3 termini at this end. The route continues through a not very interesting part of the centre with older houses, here and there a tower block, and gradually scrapyards, a petrol station and the incinerator, originally placed in the city centre. Only beyond it do we turn into a denser district of medium-sized apartment houses and fairly narrow streets, to soon emerge at the edge of the largest estate, Rochlice, built in the 1970s, which moreover grew further after 2000 with adjoining modern development and is still growing to this day. The largest share of passengers gets off at the Dobiášova stop, adjoined by a primary school specialising in physical education. Most services end at the end of the estate, at the Zelené Údolí terminus. Some services, however, turn off before that and, through a strange no-man's-land lined with a meadow (with a beautiful view of Ještěd and the setting sun), reach another estate, Broumovská. These services are the only ones serving the new apartment houses by the Ševčíkova stop. The route then joins the route of line 25, where it runs along the edge of the estate. There we again find panel blocks on one side of the road and older family houses on the other. Among the panel blocks there is traditionally a primary school and a dilapidated functionalist service centre.
The last terminus, with its glory already faded, is Pekárny. The terminus lies, as the name suggests, in a little wood by the Liberec bakeries, just a few hundred metres beyond the Zelené Údolí loop. Today only a few services in the morning and evening continue to Pekárny. Often even these go unused, so who knows how long this terminus will still appear in the timetables.