ROUTE FUNCTION
LIST OF STOPS
- 1970: a proposal to introduce bus transport to Radčice is discussed. The proposal, however, ended with the conclusion that, due to the unsuitable state of the roads, their adjustment was first necessary. This never happened, and therefore....
- 1983: two small Robur LO 3000 buses are acquired for deployment precisely on the line to Radčice, which still does not allow the operation of large buses.
- 7 March 1984: the line finally begins operation. It starts from the Pavlovice Tesla loop, so the route is only Pavlovice Tesla - Radčice and back, already on the current semi-circular route.
- 1990: after the major optimisation of the route network, the line is run from the centre via Stráž nad Nisou along the current route.
- 1992: due to the company's poor economic situation, selected line 24 services are extended to the outlying districts instead of the services of lines 13, 26 and 28, including to Radčice. In the case of the other lines the measures were gradually withdrawn; only the services to Radčice survived, and so since then line 28 has been replaced outside peak hours and at weekends, to this day, by line 24 services.
- 12 December 2021: selected services began to serve the Stráž nad Nisou stop (at Bergerovo náměstí). This step marks the beginning of regular transport along Neumannova street.
- 30 September 2024: after the reconstruction of Sokolská street, the Sokolská most stop was abolished and a Sokolská stop was introduced in the direction from the centre at the site of the original suburban-transport stop.
Line 28 has a special place in the transit network. It runs only with a few services during weekday peaks, so drivers do not get to enjoy it very often. The section from Fügnerova to Stráž nad Nisou is well known to drivers from other lines and there is nothing special about it. The Pavlovice křižovatka - Radčice section, however, is one of the most demanding in terms of space. All the streets, from Polední to Raspenavská, are just wide enough for a bus. The timetable and route (which differs there and back) fortunately take this into account, so it is impossible to meet a colleague with another bus. That does not mean, however, that an encounter with an ordinary car in the wrong place cannot cause trouble. The most dreaded are above all Polední, V Rokli and the second part of Výletní streets. And now imagine meeting a snowplough at these spots in winter... The section is very demanding but one of the most beautiful. I filmed line 28 during a bleak December inversion, which of course belongs to the local climate, with a Tedom C12G #521. If you are interested in Radčice in nicer weather, take a look at line 24, which serves it when line 28 is not running.
As a point of interest, here is also a special evening service of line 28, which is the continuation of the last two departures of line 12. 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.
Finally, here is a pair of videos with the detour to Stráž nad Nisou, which began to appear in the timetable in 2021. It is the only way to drive along Neumannova street. The first video shows a shortened service ending the morning part of a split shift, which starts at the Pavlovice křižovatka stop, where it connects to a line 24 service, and ends at the Růžodol I stop, from where it pulls in to the garages.
The next clip shows the same service in the opposite direction. It was, admittedly, a closure service which started at the Růžodol Mlýn stop, but a Růžodol I - Pavlovice křižovatka service can also be encountered in the regular timetable. I was not carrying anyone, so at the terminus I did not pull into the turning loop.
The busy city centre
As we extricate ourselves from the fairly airy space of the Fügnerova terminal, we find ourselves in the somewhat darker 8. března street, lined with fairly tall old apartment houses, but also with the complex of former printing works recast into new flats. Soon we pass the Liberec little chateau by literally centimetres and suddenly find ourselves in another airy space dominated by the Plaza shopping centre and the largest Liberec junction, Šaldovo náměstí. With the bus we split off onto a dedicated road shared with other lines, including tram lines, which directly adjoins the Plaza. After overcoming the Šalďák, the most complicated junction in Liberec, we again plunge into a narrow dark street between tall houses that remember much. One of them is the old post office, still the main Liberec post office today. We briefly glimpse the F. X. Šalda Theatre and the town hall, but quickly disappear at the stop under the bridge on Sokolská street. Beyond it we can again briefly glimpse the modern regional research library and, downhill, leave the city centre at greater speed. On the way we pass an abandoned restaurant that was considered one of the best (Šnyt, originally Ambiente), the Avicena service centre, but also, for example, the interesting building of Lesy ČR (the Czech state forests). We drive straight through the traffic-light junction, which only lines 28 and 600 do. It is a considerable speeding-up of the route to Růžodol, by which we avoid the upper-centre sections that lines 12 and 23, for example, pass through. We quickly whizz along Sokolská street through no-man's-land and already appear on the bridge over the Nisa, which at the same time sends us into Londýnská street. Lines 12 and 23 have joined from Chrastavská street, and a former tram route also ran this way, though we will find no memento of it here anymore. It ran along the hairpins of Dožínková street past the same villas that are still there today, all the way to the Letka restaurant. That too has a rich history. But by now we are joining the other lines, among them 14, 27 and 30. With some we ride only briefly, with others all the way to Stráž nad Nisou. Růžodol I is one of the busiest stops in the transit network, but it also forms a small square with shops and apartment houses. Not far from here is the F. X. Šalda Grammar School, which generates a large part of the demand.
The strange industrial valley of the Nisa river
Just a little further on we reach the junction called the Snowman after its shape — it is several roundabouts in one. This space too has undergone enormous changes over the last decades. From a tranquil street heading to Stráž nad Nisou with a few houses around, disturbed only by the nearby railway, it became a very busy junction beside the main city through route, and at the same time the entrance to the shopping and industrial zone. The junction, fortunately, concerns us only marginally, so we usually drive through it without much trouble, even though queues often form in the surrounding streets. There follows a strange no-man's section running along road I/35. That will accompany us on the left. On the right we pass several shops and a wastewater treatment plant. We also pass the Růžodol Mlýn loop, where many line 12 and 23 services used to turn around. Between 2006 and 2021, however, it was used only exceptionally and for most of the time stood empty. Today the weekend line 39 turns around on it. Only later do the first residential houses begin to appear, and then older industrial buildings too. Behind one of them is hidden the confluence of the Lužická and Černá Nisa. We will not see it, however; instead, by an inconspicuous bridge, we cross the Černá Nisa, by which we move from the valley of one river into the valley of another. Here lines 23 and 30 also leave us, and the following section is divided between line 28 on weekdays and 39 at weekends. It is a specific section where at first we pass the houses and villas of the village of Stráž nad Nisou, but gradually we reach a dark overgrown valley, where on one side there is a steep slope ending at the barely visible railway to Frýdlant, and on the other all sorts of industrial buildings, now older, now newer, which used to use the flow of the little Černá Nisa river. Past the best known of them — the former Tesla — we arrive at the open space of the Pavlovice křižovatka loop. Only here did line 28 originally begin, and at last comes the most beautiful section, which will take us out into nature. But first a little more about the history of this place, which is inseparably linked with my life.
Pavlovice křižovatka
To this day locals call the place either "the junction" (křižovatka) or "u Litesu" (by Lites). Right next to the loop stands the architecturally significant factory building of the Siegmund brothers, with a rich history, which later became the seat of the Lites company, which still makes fire-safety equipment today. Indeed, the loop too used to be called Pavlovice Lites. An important crossroads, however, had been here long before Lites. We must not forget the Staročeská restaurant, well known throughout the wider area, though hardly any local calls it anything but "Na kříži" (At the Cross). Right next to it is the stop of line 28, but also of 13 and 24. Opposite the stop is the former villa of the Siegmund industrialists, around which there used to be a landscaped park where I spent many hours in childhood and later. The old landscaped park from the days of the Siegmund industrialists is now noticeable only on an attentive walk through the wood. In it you will find old fence posts, ornamental trees that do not belong in a Czech wood, and even the foundations of gazebos and a swimming pool! On the top of the hill above the park there then stood, until the Second World War, the Siegmund lookout tower. Even after it, we find the remains of its footings there.
Through the valley of the Černá Nisa
But let us continue along the route. Before you know it, you find yourself on a smaller road in a fairly deep mixed forest in the valley of the Černá Nisa river. On the left a steep slope, rocks and trees, on the right the riverbed. Apart from a few warehouses and ruins, the route does without civilisation for a long time. Although the valley is deep and the sun reaches it only rarely, the banks of the Černá Nisa here were a popular recreation spot. This is proven by the fact that they were once nicknamed the Adriatic (Jadran). Today you would hardly see anyone sunbathing there, but the place is still considered an interesting tourist destination. After this wooded section we reach Janův Most. Here the first houses and old factories appear, which made use of the swift flow of the little river. Discovering them, however, we will leave to line 13, which continues along the valley, whereas the 28 now has to turn left and extricate itself from the valley. We now share the route only with line 24, and it will stay that way to the terminus.
Places barely fit for a bus
Polední street is among the narrowest places a bus has to squeeze through in Liberec. The gentle hairpins in the dense forest are, however, at the same time among the most beautiful sections, where you may meet, for example, wildlife running across. A collision, though, is not much of a threat, because the bus's speed is low. Every driver fears a car suddenly tearing out of a blind bend, so they drive at walking pace. Only when, beyond the last bend, the light of the adjacent meadows appears, is it won. We have emerged at the junction with Výletní street on an inconspicuous ridge, where the name of the stop recalls an ancient crossroads. But the last kilometre to the destination still awaits us.
Around Jedlová
The remaining section is still characterised by narrow little streets that cross every which way, as the village once grew. A novice driver has to be very careful to turn into the right one. The scenery of sparsely scattered houses among fields and groves resembles a sub-mountain village. On the way back, in suitable conditions, there is a beautiful view of Liberec and the Ještěd–Kozákov ridge on this section. By the Jedlová stop we can recall the old school or the well-known former inn Na Jedlové. At the junction of five streets only a small shop, U Kozejů, remains to this day, where in suitable weather the locals often stand with bottles and look over every bus like an attraction. In a moment we finally reach the highest point of the route, which is at the same time the terminus. It is right next to the wooded Dračí vrch hill with the stone lookout Na Dračím kameni (On the Dragon Stone). It is a popular destination for tourists, so in good weather the bus brings a few of them; at other times, however, it often runs almost or completely empty.
Back a different way
In this case it is worth musing over the return route too, which from the Radčice rozcestí stop is different. It has been so since the first line to Radčice was introduced. The line thus, on the one hand, serves more places, and on the other hand it eliminates the risk of two buses meeting at some narrow spot. And so we enjoy the beautiful view once more; perhaps we will be lucky with a summer daybreak early in the morning, when we have the awakening Liberec in the palm of our hand and Ještěd awaits the sunrise, during which it turns dark red shades. Beyond the crossroads we do not turn left, where we came from, but continue straight. First gently uphill, then downhill. The character does not change much for now; we still pass now an older house, now a newer one, now a meadow with a grazing flock of sheep. Gradually, however, the development thickens and Výletní street becomes more cramped and twisting. After crossing the little bridge over the Radčický brook, we find ourselves at the one-way U Lípy stop, which is already in the territory of Krásná Studánka. From here it is just a short way to the main Hejnická road heading to Mníšek and on into the Frýdlant spur. At the same time, here we join line 26. Through the wooded valley we whizz past the sunken building of the former Textilana, which is still in use today, and beyond a sharp bend a large area with a loop already opens up to us — we are again in Pavlovice, at the junction, although the loop itself is in Stráž nad Nisou.