Liberec Routes

Line 500 is historically connected, of course, with the history of the first Liberec shopping centre. When it opened in 1998, it was the first Liberec supermarket with several specialised shops. A few months after the opening (in October 1999), the first commercial shopping line 500 with free transport was also put into operation. The line was then operated by the private operator Ivan Pacák, until the major rebuild of the centre in 2008.

On 31 October 2008 a new shopping centre named Nisa opened to visitors, and line 500 was taken over by the Public Transport Company of the Cities of Liberec and Jablonec nad Nisou. Another novelty is the OC Nisa kino stop in front of the upper entrance to the centre, where the multiplex cinema is newly located.

Timetable from 2008

Christmas reinforcement of operation in 2008

Timetable from 2012

26 March 2020: Until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, line 500 ran all day (roughly from 8 a.m. to midnight) at a half-hourly frequency. During the state of emergency it logically stopped running for a time, but after the shops reopened it returned only in a limited variant, and this timetable still holds for now. Since Covid there are only three services in the morning after opening (7:55, 8:25 and 8:55); operation then continues only from 12 noon to 7:30 p.m. at a half-hourly frequency, and the timetable is closed by two evening employee services at 21:17 and 22:28.

Timetable from 2021

It is no coincidence that line 500 is often used as a line for new and inexperienced drivers. The route is very simple and fast, most of it taking place on the through road across the city. See for yourself in the following videos from one pleasant summer day with the now retired SOR BN 12 #324.

Through an uninteresting centre

Line 500, 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.

Before we know it, we are at the Nisa

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. Beyond the mentioned petrol station we get onto road I/35, which is the main through route of Liberec and at the same time a link with Turnov, Chrastava, Mladá Boleslav and Prague. We will not have much time to look around: on one side we can watch the throat of the Liberec station, behind which the arena and the adjacent sports centre rise, on the other we can appreciate the view of the city centre, but rather mainly of the panel blocks of the largest Liberec estate, Rochlice. At the same time we can only imagine what the place looked like before the construction of the through route in the 1970s. Doubská street, winding below us, was a calm little street with older houses around. We still glimpse the former Baumax, where for years there has been only an empty car park, and we are already coming off the through route again. Under the bridge of the busy České mládeže street and past a petrol station, we quickly appear by the McDonald's, which is already part of the OC Nisa shopping complex. The alighting stop is right by one of the first entrances.

Back past the cinema

The journey back begins differently, because the bus first has to get onto the slip road onto the through route in the opposite direction. The boarding stop is a little further on, beyond the three-storey car park. From there, along a narrow road in a cutting next to the shopping centre, it climbs to the upper car park. On the way, let us notice a small gap in the noise barrier, through which a small footpath leads somewhere out. It leads to an interesting little district of family houses in V Cihelně and Nová cesta streets. It is a district of village character, moreover next to a pasture, which has, however, been perfectly cut off from the world by the railway, the shopping centre and road I/35. But let us return to the route. We are at the upper car park between the furniture store and the upper entrance to OC Nisa, which is at the same time the entrance to the multiplex. A little further on we already leave the shopping zone and join the traffic artery of České mládeže street, which is the main link between the southern industrial zone and the main through route. It is to that that we head, together with the others. On the way we pass several warehouses, a car repair shop or, for example, a petrol station. We cross the aforementioned bridge over the through route and get onto it. From there we already know the way.