ROUTE FUNCTION
- 1958: selected services were joined with line 16 without entering the centre, on the Stráž nad Nisou - Viadukt - Ostašov route. I find the introduction of a night connection of Stráž nad Nisou with Liberec on weekdays particularly interesting.
- 18 May 1959: the line was extended to the square in Stráž, to the current terminus.
- 1960: express services from the industrial plants in Stráž nad Nisou to Liberec were introduced (unmarked).
- 1 September 1990: the line was rerouted into the form Fügnerova - Sokolská - Růžodol I - Stráž nad Nisou. The original route via the railway station is newly served by line 30.
- 1992: due to the poor economic situation, the line was discontinued and replaced by line 30 and extended line 12 services. The discontinuation was meant to be temporary, but in the end became permanent, ending line 17 as the traditional line to Stráž and making it disappear from the timetables for more than 10 years.
- 1 January 2003: a new line 17 was introduced, whose purpose is to transport employees to the newly built Southern Industrial Zone. Its route is JUNGMANNOVA - Poliklinika - Zelené Údolí - Rochlice - PRŮMYSLOVÁ ZÓNA JIH, and only two services in this direction operate, for the shift changes at 6 a.m. and 2 p.m.
- 1 September 2006: the line was discontinued and replaced by line 35 services on a similar route. The number 17 again disappears for some time.
- 1 September 2010: in connection with the improvement of service to the city Aréna area, a new line 17 was introduced on the semi-circular route Fügnerova - Ulice 28. října - Aréna - Fügnerova. In the centre it runs via the Babylon stop.
- 11 December 2022: the line is newly routed along Dr. Milady Horákové and Čechova streets instead of Košická. The reason for the change is the frequent congestion on Košická.
Line 17 is roughly a 15-minute fast run. That does not make it a relaxed line, though. The area around the Aréna is full of narrow streets, heavy traffic and tricky turns. The most treacherous is Herbenova street, into which you have to turn from Karoliny Světlé street with the utmost caution. It often happens that a car is parked so unfortunately by the junction that the turn is not even possible. Once we get past Herbenova, Jeronýmova awaits, often narrowed by parked cars, and you have to weave between them. As this is a place of frequent cultural and sporting events, the whole area sometimes gets clogged with heavy surge traffic. The final turn from Jeronýmova into 28. října street is no picnic either: visibility to the left is poor and you have to turn across the oncoming lane. Only after passing the bridge under the railway, which also does not have the most favourable space, can the driver finally feel relief.
On a pleasant spring evening, with an Iveco Urbanway #718, I drove this line on its originally valid route along Košická street.
I associate line 17 with one of the nicest periods of my life — studying at the Jeronýmova grammar school. It was precisely during my studies that this line was created. It probably had nothing to do with it, but by coincidence it happened a few months after I criticised, in a year project, the poor service to the area of the grammar school and the sports grounds and suspected the company of artificially filling the trams. Until line 17 was introduced on this route, you had to walk either from the tram (from Vápenka or from Staré Pekárny) or from the Čechova bus stop under the through route and through the "mouse hole". As I travelled from Doubí, I continued to use the Čechova stop, but the creation of line 17 on this route provided an interesting new line winding through the narrow little streets of this area. Let us take a ride along it; it will not be a long journey.
Through an uninteresting centre
Line 17, like many other lines, begins in the centre at the terminal. Next to the terminal is the controversial Fórum shopping centre, which replaced the popular Ještěd department store. The controversy and the popularity, however, have to be related to a specific time. In essence through the OC Fórum parking house, we extricate ourselves from the terminal and continue along the one-way street past the little park, several neglected city houses and the regional authority, to the junction with Košická street. Here we can see at least the rear of IQ Landia and the front of the strange hostel with a strange car park that does not suit this part of the city at all. A little further on is the well-known Babylon Centre — a sensation of the 1990s, today rather a building of faded glory, sought out mainly by foreigners, of which only the funfair and the water park have retained their popularity, though their quality keeps declining over time. It is precisely in this street that frequent queues form, mainly in the afternoon peak — not so much in the direction from the centre as towards it. After overcoming the next traffic-light junction, we reach a strange no-man's street (Nákladní), lined on one side by the city through route and a petrol station, and on the other by warehouses and small shops created from the original station transshipment buildings. Getting onto Doubská street changes little; worth mentioning is only the entrance to the aforementioned "mouse hole" beneath the southern throat of the Liberec station. The bus would also benefit from shortening its journey through this little tunnel, but it has to go all the way to the next roundabout.
A sports district with a rich history
Beyond the roundabout and the underpass beneath the tracks, we suddenly reach a different world — the world of sport. We pass the controversial Liberec arena. An arena that certainly serves the city, but whose financing brought a lot of obscurities and which to this day has a bad political reputation. Before we reach the entrance itself, a passage through the adjacent district awaits us. By the Zimní stadion stop we pass the exit from the "mouse hole" with steep stairs. When we finally turn away from the tracks, which we now have on the right, we drive into one of the oldest Liberec parts, namely Horní Růžodol. It is lined with older apartment houses, among which we come across old pubs, small shops or, for example, former schools. Soon, however, follows a space-demanding turn into Herbenova street. Sometimes, when a car is badly parked by the junction, the turn is not even possible at all. In that case the driver has to attempt it only in Palackého street, in order to get onto Jeronýmova street at all.
I am reminded of my own youth — and not only mine — right by the Herbenova stop, where on the right there is the new building of the Jeronýmova Grammar School and Secondary Vocational Pedagogical School, a canteen and a sports field. On the field I dashed about with a ball many times, in the classrooms I sat through long days, and in the canteen I stood in the queue for hours. Right opposite is another field, but that already belongs to the U Školy primary school. With another difficult turn we reach the aforementioned sports centre. Right opposite the turn is the old entrance to the athletics stadium. There too I did some running and jumping. For some unknown reason, however, this entrance is closed and people go around the hockey hall. That served the hockey players even before the new arena was built, and it is still used today. In the complex we find several other outdoor and indoor pitches for various kinds of sports. We must not forget the basketball and volleyball halls, which stood in the area even before the new sports centre was built and which are owned by the well-known Dukla Liberec, which has raised several successful teams and individuals in various sports. Towards the end of the gentle hill of Jeronýmova street we also pass interesting newer apartment houses, among which is hidden, for example, a well-known pizzeria.
With that this account ends, because soon we appear again in front of the steep stairs plunging into the "mouse hole" and join the route along which we arrived from the centre.