Dopravní podnik města Brna, a. s., is a joint-stock company of the statutory city of Brno whose main task is to provide public transport within the city. It operates tram, bus and trolleybus services as well as boat services on the Brno Reservoir.[1]
Activities
The company states that it provides transport services in Brno around the clock, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and responds to emergencies as needed.[1] It also maintains and expands a collection of historic and retro vehicles. Passengers can ride them on regular seasonal lines or order them for private trips.[1] In its vision and policy the company emphasises services for passengers, support for the professional growth of employees and reliability for the city.[1]
Horse-drawn tramway
Public transport in Brno began on 17 August 1869 with the opening of the first horse-drawn tramway on what is now Czech territory. After Vienna and Budapest, Brno was the third city of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy of the time with such transport. On the first line from Moravské náměstí to Královo Pole, six cars ran at fifteen-minute intervals. By 1870 there were 52 cars on four lines and one freight siding, and the network included three depots in Pisárky, in Královo Pole and in Raduitova (Marešova) street.[1] The horse-drawn tramway ran, with a break in 1875 and 1876, until 1881, when operation was stopped because it was unprofitable.[1]
Steam operation
The steam street tramway began operating on 24 May 1884 on the line from Pisárky to Královo Pole, and in the same year it was extended by the section from Václavská to the Brno Central Cemetery. In total 15 locomotives and 31 trailer cars were put into service, and two years later a new company was formed.[1] Steam operation did not end even after passenger transport was electrified. The number of locomotives fell to four, which served in freight siding transport and, in passenger transport, could be used during power outages or on Sundays and holidays.[1] The last locomotive, Caroline, now an exhibit of the Technical Museum in Brno, hauled freight wagons through the streets until February 1926, when it was transferred to the siding of Zbrojovka connected to the network of the Czechoslovak State Railways. A second period of steam operation came in the 1940s, after the Brno–Líšeň local railway was joined to the Brno Electric Street Railways Company.[1]
Electric operation
Construction of the electrically powered street tramway began in 1900, and operation started on 21 June of that year.[1]