Line 39 was first introduced on 8 May 2015 on the route Fügnerova - Areál Vesec. With this step the city of Liberec wanted to bring the hard-to-reach Vesec sports grounds closer to its citizens. It was to run only in the summer and winter season at weekends and on public holidays, roughly between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at an hourly interval, all the way to the car park next to the grounds. Originally it ran as a direct service; from 5 September 2015 it also began to stop at the Vesec U Střediska stop. For the 2015/2016 winter season, however, it was already announced that its operation would be tied to snow conditions. After the 2016 summer season the operation of line 39 quietly ended, even though it was by then stopping at all the en-route stops. The stop post at the grounds remained for several years afterwards, and a memento of the stop has remained hanging in the mapy.cz application to this day. Buses nevertheless still visit the car park by the grounds from time to time — chiefly during the Benátská festival, when shuttle transport runs here from the centre of Liberec, and occasionally during other events.
Line 39's second appearance is connected with austerity measures in the service of Stráž nad Nisou. On 12 December 2021 it was introduced on the semi-circular route Pavlovice křižovatka - Stráž nad Nisou - Růžodol Mlýn - Pavlovice křižovatka and onward along the route of line 24.
The route video is yet to be added.
On the Doubí sídliště - Pavlovice křižovatka section, three lines have run since 1996: 13, 24 and 26, which is why this section has the established name "the three-line group". Only at the end of 2021 was this disrupted by the new line 39, which joined these three, but only at weekends. So I still call this section the three-line group, even though at weekends it is de facto a four-line group. Line 39 is still rather in a trial mode, and overall its creation was preceded by a kind of emergency solution for serving Stráž nad Nisou.
The three-line group is unquestionably my greatest "favourite". From an early age I rode it from Doubí to Pavlovice to visit my grandmothers. Later in childhood and adolescence I rode it daily to ZŠ Vrchlického, then to grammar school, to pubs, to the authorities, on trips, to the Prague bus for university, and so on as life went on. So I mainly used the part between Doubí and the centre, but occasional trips to Pavlovice and other parts continued. And today I am part of it again, but no longer so much as a passenger, rather as a driver. On today's shift, in fact, I have one round to Radčice, two to Krásná Studánka and the last all the way to Stráž ahead of me. So it can be said that this three-line group has become, in its so-far unchanged form, an unshakeable part of my life. It has been so for almost 30 years. I know every house here, every hole in the road. I know, and have often seen, how various buildings have come and gone along the route over time, as the city constantly changes. If I were to write down all these memories, it would fill a whole book about a single bus line. In this article, of course, I will be more concise.
The southern end of the route serves two Liberec estates, Doubí and Vesec. There the route is characterised by a dense network of stops. Although Vesec and Doubí used to be small picturesque villages just outside Liberec, old original houses are now few in these locations, and most of them lie further from the bus route. The village character full of meadows and fields was changed in the last century by giant concrete colossi — panel blocks built on extensive green meadows. We drive around the Doubí estate on its southern side, opposite which we find smaller terraced houses. Beyond the traffic-light junction, where there used to be trees, we also pass a relatively new football pitch, which, however, is already in the Vesec cadastre. By the roundabout we pass an old, now barely noticeable bus turning loop and drive past the majestic Vesec school with its Sokol hall, which still recall the old days of quality architecture. A little further on, however, panel blocks begin on the right, on the left there is still an old post office with a shop, and beyond that older and newer villas. But these last only a moment, and soon more giant "rabbit hutches" appear on the left. On the right the long-dilapidated building of the Libena factory is worth mentioning. After leaving the estate we descend a steep hill past a timber shop that I remember there from childhood. Below the hill comes a passage through a once-whole, now divided and modern industrial plant. After a sharp bend, with a small ghetto on one side and a former pub and gym on the other, we reach a level crossing that separates the next stage of the route.
The level crossing can hand out a delay of several minutes too. Right beyond it we enter Poštovní náměstí, where the first tram route in Liberec once ended, and a bus line ended here too. Now, however, no one would even think of it; the square changed beyond recognition around the new millennium. It is characterised rather by the fact that part of it is hidden under the flyover of the Liberec–Jablonec expressway. Another peculiar characteristic of this square is that on it and in the immediate surroundings there are about 4 non-stop bars/gambling halls. I never figured out why they concentrate right there; I never saw a large number of people in them, but they have survived there for years. On this square our three-line group also joins lines 20 and 37 and continues with them to the centre along Dr. Milady Horákové street. It is lined on both sides by older houses with various services, behind which, on the left, the Nisa river is hidden, on the right more houses and, right next to them, a rock massif on top of which the edge of the Rochlice estate is visible. The houses are occasionally replaced by various facilities, such as the Kaufland store built on a former factory. Other old factories in the Nisa valley did not get demolished and were rebuilt. Beyond the Čechova stop the main landmarks are the law school and the Liberec heating plant and incinerator. The houses on the right grow larger, but only up to the next traffic-light junction by the Melantrichova stop. On the right it is lined by a strange no-man's wood before we reach a petrol station and more villas. On the left various industrial facilities continue.
The junction with Košická street, in my eyes, separates another stage — the stage of the centre. For now we still skirt a little park and more villas, but soon we reach the tall buildings of the regional authority, the S-tower, the labour office and others, which mark the approaching Fügnerova public transport terminal. Suddenly we find ourselves in the lower centre of the city, full of shops, restaurants and the Fórum and Delta department stores. Those who remember will recall the old Ještěd department store, which had its die-hard supporters and opponents. As we extricate ourselves from this airy space, we find ourselves in the somewhat darker 8. března street, lined with fairly tall old apartment houses. Soon, however, we pass the Liberec little chateau 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, 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.
At the next traffic-light junction we turn left and the character of the city changes again. The rest of the route follows a road hundreds of years old into the northern corners of Bohemia. At peak it tends to be fairly busy, but on quiet evenings it can be driven the whole way without stopping. In general this half of the route is much calmer than the first part. We pass a small theatre and find ourselves on a neat straight street that blossoms beautifully pink in spring. We pass a mixture of villas and modern houses with services. Behind them we can only sense an interesting youth hostel with a rich history and architecture resembling a chateau, and a little further the Jedlička Institute by a beautiful villa district. But already we descend a sharp S-bend to the traffic playground and, opposite, glimpse the main football stadium. Dopravní hřiště (the traffic playground) is also the name of the adjacent stop, at which it does not often stop, but during a football match there can be downright crowds here. After the S-bend descent, though, we have to climb back up the hill again. We pass, among other things, a former hotel, now the Atrium retirement home. When we climb the hill to the Vrchlického stop, the strange socialist department store Merkur appears on the right. It was from here that I, with many other pupils, walked to ZŠ Vrchlického, though some also to the adjacent ZŠ Sokolovská and the Podještědí Grammar School. Beyond the next bend follows a straight with a vet's, a strange casino, and it ends with a very sharp bend, beside which stands the building of the Universum International Centre, otherwise also called the Colosseum. For decades now, cultural and educational events, among others, have been held here. Beyond the bend we soon reach the Hrdinů stop, where there is the well-known pub Václavka and a building where various services come and go over time. Up the next hill we already drive through a little wood that somewhat darkens the whole street. Beyond the wood, however, the Nové Pavlovice estate and the adjacent garages peek out. On the hill by the Letná stop there used to be a classic estate corner shop. Now motorbikes and quad bikes are sold there. The shop was replaced by a Billa supermarket opposite. But even that did not last and turned, after a few years, into an industrial building. Ahead of us is only the steep descent through an overgrown valley to the Pavlovice junction, during which we glimpse the Nové Pavlovice estate on the left and, on the right, a notorious house with notorious residents. With that this account ends. The area of the Pavlovice křižovatka loop is the terminus of the larger part of line 24 services, but it is also a place with an immensely rich history, which you could discover in the account of the remaining parts of the route of lines 13, 24, 26 and 39, which branch here and each continue elsewhere.
The 39, together with line 28, has a separate stop outside the loop, opposite the former Tesla. First we will say something about the area of this ancient crossroads, and then we will set off on the remaining part of the route, which is already unique to line 39.
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.
Before we know it, we drive past the former Tesla and the last villas and already appear in a strange 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. Only later do the first residential houses begin to appear, and then more industrial buildings. 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, to 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. Lines 23, 26 and 30 end here, but we continue further. Or rather, we return the same way to the confluence, where we turn into Oblouková street and make one more detour to Růžodol Mlýn. That takes place along a street running parallel with road I/35 on an overgrown embankment, opposite which stands sparse development of older houses and villas. We turn around at the old and neglected 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 only line 39 turns around on it. After turning around we head back to the confluence and, now without the detour to Stráž, continue back to Doubí.
Contributors: Boveraclub (historical records), Liberecká podniková (videos, proofreading), Tomáš Krupička Sr. (local facts) and others.
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