ROUTE FUNCTION
- 1967: weekend recreational services to Rudolfov were introduced, to the extent of 7 services. Later gradually reduced to a single service a day.
- 1 August 2022: the Rudolfov terminus by Česká chalupa was abolished, which necessitated a change of timetable but also of route. Selected services newly switch here from/to line 18, which strengthened operation on the Harcov Střelnice - Rudolfov section. Selected services run all the way to the Škola Kateřinky stop, so the line's route was extended at the same time.
- 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.
Line 19 is another of the several beautiful excursion lines into the surrounding hills. There is not much time to admire the view, though, as I personally consider the Lesní správa - Zahrádky section one of the most unpleasant of all. Narrow forest hairpins where you cannot see more than a few metres around the bend. An encounter with a car in the wrong place can bring a lot of complications, let alone with a bus. I have even had to reverse. The Harcov Střelnice - Rudolfov section is not much better. The section does, however, offer a beautiful view of Liberec, so it does no harm to slow down discreetly at the right spot. Filming was done with an Iveco Urbanway #538. NOTE — in the direction from the centre, unlike in the video, the stop now used is Šaldovo náměstí on the tracks, not on Jablonecká street. Since then the Klášterní stop has been added towards the centre and the Rudolfov terminus has ceased to exist.
Since the Rudolfov terminus was abolished, there are number-switching services 18/19 and 19/18 with the switch in Rudolfov. The last service of line 18/19, however, has operated in this mode for many years and is in the following clip. Focus especially on the U Pramenů - Kateřinky křižovatka section, which is only ploughed. I believe at least part of the atmosphere I experience will reach you, when late in the evening I drive an empty bus through the silent snowy forests. Right at the start of the video you can also hear the dispatcher's departure signal. It was driven with an Iveco Urbanway #718.
Finally, to complete the picture, a service on the full route which, at the time of filming, ran just once on weekdays. There is, however, a deviation here from the permanent state, because due to the closure of Jablonecká it was driven around the hospital. The Klášterní and Poliklinika stops are thus skipped. It was filmed on a beautiful early-spring day with a SOR NS 12 #742.
It is almost midnight and I am enjoying a brief view of the whole of Liberec, above which, besides the moon, the clear silhouette of Ještěd shines. I am just descending the forested hairpins of Jizerská street as the last service of line 19, which connects from Rudolfov to line 18. In the following paragraphs I will try to capture the atmosphere of this fairly short and lightly used line, which nevertheless has a very long tradition. We begin, as usual, at Fügnerka.
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. The role of the dominant university line is played rather by the 15, but the 19 has a fairly similar route and so ably supplements it. We set off along one of Liberec's traffic arteries towards Šaldovo náměstí. It is lined mostly with taller apartment houses, but also, for example, with the complex of the former Liberec printing works. 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 the tram track-bed. Although they have the same name (they did not always, though), the journey between them can even 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 development 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 — the building of the Department of Geography of the Faculty of Science, Humanities and Education. 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 see the significant building of the Ursuline convent with the polyclinic and the Church of the Sacred Heart of the Lord. Hardly anyone has not yet visited some doctor in the convent. 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. The whole long straight is lined with trees that beautifully colour the street in spring. On the left we soon reach the modern technical university campus, as the name of the stop also indicates. It is precisely here that we may encounter strong surge demand from students, and it is here too that we split off from the route shared with line 15. That continues down towards the little wood by the dam and to the university halls of residence. We reach the halls of residence too, but from above. We work our way to the Březová alej stop along Husova street, along which more beautiful villas continue, which rich townsfolk once built for themselves. Some of them bear the name of their builders. From Březová alej, or as the locals would say "od břízy" (from the birch), we briefly glimpse the "Wolkerák", a well-known timeless apartment building which, since the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, has inseparably belonged to the north-eastern panorama of Liberec. Although it is a predecessor of the later panel blocks, it is sensitively set on the edge of the Jizera Mountains forest, only a few hundred metres from the Liberecká výšina, to which Wolkerova street itself, after all, leads. There is, by the way, a breathtaking view of Liberec from it.
A memory of the old shooting range
The 19, however, continues further along Jizerská street through a mix of First-Republic and modern villas, here and there some smaller apartment house too. Beyond the Lesní správa stop, though, the density of houses begins to thin out noticeably, until it disappears entirely. Only the forest remains. A steep overgrown slope, which we have to overcome with several narrow and blind bends. From the first hairpin a now rather inconspicuous track turns off into the forest. Relatively recently it still led to a shooting range founded back in Austria-Hungary. Even my dad practised shooting on it during military service. Today only ruins and the name of the terminus, Harcov, Střelnice, refer to it; we will soon reach it.
Into endless forests all the way to Česká chalupa
For the driver the blind bends are nothing pleasant, but the passenger can feast on the view into the forest. It does not last long, though; we soon reach Starý Harcov — a district that has a village character with a hint of the mountains. That is given to it by the surrounding Jizera Mountains forests and hills. Most services end their journey here at the aforementioned Harcov, Střelnice loop. At the time of writing, only one afternoon service continues further; the other, the night one, then runs only in the opposite direction. Perhaps it is a pity, because it is one of the most beautiful sections in the transit network. As soon as the bus extricates itself from the sparse development of Starý Harcov, an about five-minute "climb" to Česká chalupa awaits it, that is, a long twisting ascent through dense forest right along the boundary of the Jizera Mountains Protected Landscape Area. The only sign of civilisation is the turn-off to the Orion restaurant hidden precisely in this forest. From time to time a view opens up of the whole Liberec basin, bounded by the Ještěd–Kozákov ridge. We will not see sunset or sunrise from here, but the night view of the dreaming city in particular has a peculiar atmosphere, as I mentioned in the introduction. Otherwise the space opens up only at the Rudolfov terminus itself, where our line meets line 18, arriving from the other side. Usually the bus brings a few day-trippers here. No wonder — for at least over a hundred years it has been a popular destination for tourists, mainly from Liberec. It is the starting point of dozens of possible hiking, cycling and cross-country skiing trips, and the restaurant itself, together with the Jizerská chata nearby, conceals an interesting and long history. Česká chalupa still has the house number 1 today, as a memento of the ancient reeve's house on this spot.