ROUTE FUNCTION
- 2 November 1959: two services were extended all the way to Lukášov, by which the line had already taken on its definitive form back then. The number of services to Lukášov was later increased, but never exceeded single digits a day.
- 1962: the off-peak and Sunday interval was shortened from 60 minutes to 30. The peak interval ranges between 15 and 20 minutes, so the line has a similar extent to today.
- Probably in the 1990s, school services begin to call at the Březová alej stop (or terminate there). They are already present in the 1995 timetable. I find interesting the notes saying that these services run "to the radio", apparently after the Elger villa located next to the Březová alej stop, where a secret radio was based during the occupation. The Březová alej stop itself, however, was never named after the radio.
- 1 April 2007: until this date one school service ran via the Březová alej stop and the following service terminated at Březová alej. From this date both continue on to Harcov.
- 16 July 2023: in the direction from the centre the line newly calls at the Šaldovo náměstí stop on the tracks, where all the other lines stop too. The stop on Jablonecká street is abolished.
- 1 March 2024: a new Klášterní stop in the direction towards the centre.
- 1 July 2024: the legendary Lukášovské údolí turning loop was abolished and the line shortened to the Harcov Myslivna terminus.
- 19 November 2024: for the first time a "school" service via Březová alej was introduced also in the direction towards the centre (at 15:17 from the gamekeeper's lodge).
Line 15 is a combination of a student line and an excursion line. The student section reaches, of course, the university dormitories. On this section we can occasionally encounter buses overcrowded with students. It is followed by the section to Harcov, to the church, where most services end. This section can be described as ordinary service to an outlying district, but the space is already starting to get tighter. The services continuing to the gamekeeper's lodge can already be called excursion services. They pass through the beautiful wooded valley of the Harcov brook with sparse development, where it is not unusual to meet wildlife, and every spring there are signs warning of frog migration.
First the current footage; below it you will also find the old route variants from before the changes in the area (Šaldovo náměstí and Klášterská) and especially from the time when some services still ran all the way to the legendary turning loop Lukášovské Údolí, dreaded among drivers.
To make the list complete, here is a video of a school service which calls at the Březová alej stop and, as the only regular service, runs along Alšova and Březová alej streets.
The following pair of clips with an Iveco Urbanway CNG #535 is already history — the Klášterní stop does not yet exist here, the stop used is Šaldovo náměstí on Jablonecká street, and the line runs all the way into Jablonec territory to Lukášovské Údolí, where buses often got stuck in winter in the bizarre turning loop in the courtyard of a block of flats. At the Harcov Myslivna loop you can see a police checkpoint, as the Covid lockdown was underway in March 2021.
Summer was already nearing its end. It was almost dark and I had about a 20-minute break at the gamekeeper's lodge. It was still warm, after a beautiful sunny day, which a returning cyclist reminded me of. But otherwise nothing — absolute peace and calm. Only a faint chirping in the meadows, the Big Dipper struggling out from behind the trees, the gentle murmur of the Harcov brook and a single lamp lighting the turning loop. And as soon as I pull out of the loop, I see a small herd of deer running ahead of me down towards the brook in the valley. Was I really at the terminus of one of the largest cities in the country? Such is the reality of the Harcov Myslivna terminus. But it is still a long way there; we begin, as usual, in the city centre.
Semester or holiday?
Already while picking up passengers at the Fügnerova terminal it is evident what part of the year it is. If students predominate when boarding, it is clearly a weekday or Sunday evening. If students do not dominate and the bus is rather half-empty, it is probably the academic holidays. We set off along one of Liberec's traffic arteries towards Šaldovo náměstí. Here we share the route with a great many other lines. As soon as we pass the Liberec chateau by literally centimetres, a large open space opens up with two traffic-light junctions, the Plaza shopping centre, the Hotel Liberec, the Zlatý Lev grand hotel, the majestic savings-bank building and other important buildings. At the upper traffic-light junction, which is none other than the most complicated junction in Liberec, we wait a good few dozen seconds for the green arrow and, past the Hotel Liberec, pull in to the out-of-the-way Šaldovo náměstí stop. This stop is fairly far from the stop of most other lines, which is on a separate street on the tram tracks. Although they have the same name (they did not always, though), the journey between them can take several minutes. The junction is notorious for its peculiar function at night, when, as a tram or bus passes from the Plaza, the whole junction gets a red light, including the directions that do not cross it at all. This causes the races of the evening collective departure from Fügnerova at 22:40 and 23:10, when the colleagues from lines 15, 19 and 21 try to be at the junction before the others, because otherwise they will be left standing there for several minutes quite needlessly.
Grand First-Republic villas combined with the modern TUL buildings
Beyond this stop we pass under the hospital complex, which awaits extensive alterations soon, and we already appear by the first university building. By the Poliklinika stop we discover, for example, the former Sokol hall with the popular pub Depo, or the old villas of notable Liberec citizens. Along the traffic-light junction we pass the interesting shabby building of the textile secondary technical school and continue up a steep hill alongside the hospital complex. On the right we pass the significant building of the Ursuline convent with the polyclinic and the Church of the Sacred Heart of the Lord. Beyond the horizon the scenery changes into a pleasant street lined with grand villas. Beyond the next junction we see the award-winning building of the Husova primary school with extended language teaching, and more villas continue, among which we can in places see all the way to the Liberec dam. On the left we soon reach the technical university campus, as the name of the stop indicates. It is precisely here that we may encounter strong surge demand from students, and it is here too that line 19's support ends, its route turning off from here towards the Jizera Mountains, whereas the 15 descends through a little wood down behind the dam into the valley of the Harcov brook. Before long, along a straight, we reach the first loop by the university halls-of-residence complex. Only lines 57 and 58 turn around here, however; the others continue. If I spoke of surge demand at the technical university, that is nothing compared to what can happen here during students' morning journeys to lectures, seminars and exams, or during Sunday journeys from the centre to the halls of residence. Often lines 15, 29 and 57 meet here and even that may not be enough. Sunday evening has quite an interesting atmosphere in general. By then most of the population is spending the calm end of the week in their homes, and the traffic looks accordingly — the buses mostly run half-empty or empty. That definitely does not apply, however, to the late-afternoon and evening services of lines 15 and 19 from the centre, which are often packed to the roof. I do not envy the people who live in those few stops beyond the halls of residence, because to and from this stop they often have to endure a hopelessly full bus.
Through the calm valley of the Harcov brook
There follows a junction with the "sports cottage", where line 29 branches off, and we weave on along a narrower street through the valley of the Harcov brook. The surrounding slopes are lined mostly with larger apartment houses and villas, until we reach the first terminus, Harcov kostel. We will look for the church here in vain, though; it is hidden on the northern slope behind vegetation. At the same time, at this point we have reached the boundary of the Jizera Mountains Protected Landscape Area, and from now on we will follow it to the end. It would be odd if the character of the landscape did not change. First we whizz through a dark little wood up to a blind bend, beyond which that picturesque valley begins, with sparsely placed houses, some of them new builds and others looking as if they have been here since time immemorial. The dominant feature is a shallow brook on the right, which overflows its bed during the spring thaw. Every spring road signs here warn of frog migration. Suddenly we are as if in the valley of a mountain village. We pass the local brewery Vendelín and reach the next terminus, Harcov Myslivna, which recalls the old gamekeeper's lodge nearby. I waxed lyrical about this place in the first paragraph. Beyond this the character does not change much, yet it is an interesting sight for the driver, because beyond this terminus only a few services a day continue. A little further on, a sign reminds us that this is the only bus line that continues into the territory of the city of Jablonec nad Nisou. The Internát and Družba stops recall the old regime, and at that point the valley begins to cut in even more deeply and the calm brook becomes a torrent.
After a few sharper bends, where the remains of smaller industrial buildings appear, we reach probably the most bizarre terminus in the Liberec transit network, namely Lukášovské údolí. It is located behind a gate in the courtyard of an old, peeling apartment house of dubious history. Turning around is possible only by reversing. There are often problems here in winter, which here tends to be a little richer in snow. A trip to these parts is all the more interesting because you will rarely meet a living soul here.