ROUTE FUNCTION
Line 30 was created in 1990 after the major optimisation of the route network. It is routed the same as today, that is, via the railway station and Růžodol I. It thus replaces the original line 17, which newly began to run to Stráž along Sokolská street. The creation of line 30, however, was to some extent a matter of chance. Originally, after the route change on 1 September 1990, a circular line 26 was introduced on the route FÜGNEROVA - Krásná Studánka - Stráž nad Nisou - Růžodol I - Nádraží - FÜGNEROVA. After two months, however, it was split and returned to the original route. Line 30 was created precisely from the remaining section.
In 1992 the line was temporarily discontinued entirely between January and September due to the company's poor economic situation. Its services were replaced by extended line 12 services from Růžodol to Stráž nad Nisou. Some of them remained in later years too, as the timetables below show.
In 1999-2001 the line is marked with the number 301 due to the obligation to mark lines running beyond Liberec with three-digit numbers.
On 12 December 2021 the weekend operation was abolished. Service to Stráž nad Nisou at weekends is replaced by line 39, which consists of extended line 24 services from Pavlovice křižovatka. On weekdays, in turn, selected line 28 services begin to serve Stráž. This is a compromise solution requested by the municipality of Stráž nad Nisou.
Line 30 does not need an extensive commentary. It is an ordinary line with no dangerous or otherwise significant sections. Trouble is occasionally brought by jams at the big junction by the viaduct or on Košická. At weekends you also have to reckon with a considerably tight timetable. Some services early in the morning and late in the evening are a continuation of line 26, but this changes nothing on the line itself.
You can ride the line there and back in completely different worlds. There we travel on a pleasant spring evening with sunset approaching. On the way back we then taste a proper Liberec winter, which is no longer seen very often.
Although Stráž nad Nisou is structurally connected with Liberec, de iure it is an independent village. I have therefore called it, in this article, the separatist one. There is nothing pejorative in it, just a pointer to the actual state of affairs. We begin the journey in the centre of Liberec.
Past the Babylon to the railway station
From the terminal we set out through the parking house adjoining the OC Fórum, along the one-way Blažkova street and then Náchodská. I remember the time when these streets were used only as a replacement route in case it was not possible to turn from the terminal into the then two-way Dr. Milady Horákové street. Now both streets are used, one there and the other back. A view awaits us of the tall regional-authority building, the little park with a future riverside walk and, behind it, the IQ Landia building visible through the trees. Right after that we appear at the busy junction with Košická street, into which we also turn. It is precisely this junction that causes the long queues leading to the slip road off the through route and sometimes all the way to the railway station. Along Košická, besides the building of a dubious hostel with an unsightly car park, there is the well-known Babylon Culture, Shopping and Social Centre, built from the former Hedva industrial complex. It was certainly better known and unique rather in the 1990s and at the turn of the millennium, however; now its spaces have an aftertaste of faded glory. Even the stop next to the building has been a request stop since 2019. We pass under the city through route, road I/35, and emerge onto a long straight running alongside buildings formerly belonging to the railway station. Today in them we find, for example, a popular café, offices or a post office. Catering establishments are found also at the place where the majestic customs-house building once stood. That is right opposite today's station hall. In front of it we have to overcome a complicated junction with the tram track, which also usually causes congestion at peak. With that we briefly join the tram track-bed.
Through places full of change
Beyond the Nádraží stop we descend Žitavská street down the little hill, where on the left we have the northern throat of the station and on the right the bus station of suburban and long-distance transport. The tram track branches off at the place where the Sofia cinema used to be, and we join the queue at the large double junction called "u viaduktu" (by the viaduct). The whole place underwent an enormous transformation because of the construction of road I/35, for which many houses fell. Today it is probably the second most complicated junction, right after the Šalďák. Long queues often form here too. Although we drive through two junctions, we still remain on Žitavská street. We drive around some garages and, by the stop of the same name, pass a strange brownfield by the Nisa river. It is separated by bushes, but on closer inspection we find the remains of old buildings, among which homeless people and drug addicts have found refuge. The city has big plans for residential construction here. The street then heads uphill past old villas, but also small cube-shaped panel blocks. On the hill we reach the old restaurant Letka, where between 1929 and 1960 the tram route, along which line 2 ran, used to end. Today, however, no one would say so. There follows the Růžodol I stop, where we meet a whole lot of other lines. Besides the 27, with which we have shared the route until now, we share the section along Londýnská street with lines 12, 14, 23, 28 and others, though most of them run only a few times a day. The 23 and 28 will even continue with us all the way to Stráž.
Past the treatment plant to the church
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. By one of them we turn into Kateřinská street. We may hear a metallic rumble. That is a train passing above us over the viaduct of the railway towards Frýdlant. Under the viaduct, beside us, the confluence of the two Nisas — the Lužická and the Černá — also takes place. Now a passage through the grounds of the Benteler company awaits us. Interestingly, in front of the grounds there are traffic lights on both sides that stop the traffic in case a lorry is being manoeuvred in the grounds. We can thus easily pick up a delay right at the start of the route, but the driver encounters this only rarely. The next stop is Stráž n. N. elektrárna. That, however, besides the name of the stop, is recalled only by an old overgrown building on the bank of the Nisa. A new power station was built a little further down the flow of the river. At last we leave the expressway as, by a sharp bend, we head into Studánecká street. That, past several small panel blocks and residential villas, takes us all the way to the centre of Stráž nad Nisou, where our journey ends at Bergrovo náměstí. Before us rises the Church of St Catherine. Around the square we find the Formanka restaurant, an open-air cinema and a sports ground. The square is driven one-way towards the church and thus forms a large turning loop. An exception may be the early-morning and late-night services, which arrive as line 26 from Krásná Studánka and here change into line 30. These services I drive in the opposite direction, which shortens my journey, and usually there is no one who could even notice at these times of day. And if there is, they just get off, into the night-time Stráž, not at the stop post but opposite it.