The intention to modernise the LD Čučoriedky cableway system was submitted for EIA on 14th February 2020. The existing 4-seater chairlift should be replaced by a faster 6-seater one, which is important due to several reasons. “The locality of Tatranská Lomnica – Čučoriedky offers top-quality pistes for beginners as well as more advanced skiers in the resort. However, their potential is not used as it could be because of the fixed cableway which is difficult to embark mainly for families with small kids. This can discourage them in the same way as bad weather does,” explained Dušan Slavkovský, the general manager of the Vysoké Tatry resort. The chairlift replacement is expected to result in a higher speed and more comfort – it should slow down for embarkation and disembarkation, offer heated chairs and retractable “bubble” covers. “We would like to enable our skiers to spend less time on cableways and more time on pistes while keeping the present transport capacity. This could spread people around the resort better so that there are less of them in the lower resort sections,” added Dušan Slavkovský. The investment regarding the chairlift modernisation is estimated to be around EUR 7 million.
Tatranská Lomnica – Jamy – two years after EIA submission
The environmental impact assessment (EIA) is entering an important phase as for the project known as “Restoration of the ski resort of Tatranská Lomnica – Jamy”, which was submitted in July 2018. “Comments have been incorporated and everything is now ready for the field research to begin,“ said Dušan Slavkovský. “The restoration project includes two new cableways and interlinked ski pistes so that all pistes in Tatranská Lomnica can be used without taking skis off. We want to be consistent and among other things, we plan to build a car park under the so called Road of Freedom opposite the Jamy resort, which local inhabitants agreed with. This means that many cars that are stuck in traffic jams in the centre of Lomnica today could park at the beginning of the settlement. And from there, skiers can use a small bridge over the road to get to ski pistes. We would like to use the tram railway too and make a stop there next to the car park, which would support ecological public transport,” said Bohuš Hlavatý, the TMR general manager and chairman of the board. The Jamy investment is expected to be about EUR 15 million. The resort with two pistes was created on the western edge of Tatranská Lomnica in the 1970s and served mainly for training of young skiing talents. As there was no link to other pistes in the area and the resort did not make profit, it was closed in 2010.
Exceptions all around
The ski resort of Tatranská Lomnica is located in the territory of the Tatra National Park in the 4th level of nature protection, which means that for all above mentioned projects, exceptions are required. “The never-ending story of the TANAP-zonation, which would define nature protection zones and areas meant for development once and for all, continues without any conclusions being made, just with endless promises of politicians. For example our attempt to relieve traffic congestion between Tatranská Lomnica and Starý Smokovec by using an ecological cableway was not approved because it was blocked by a declaration of the Natura initiative, which we consider to be illegal. That is why we are talking about the need to replace one of our chairlifts and restoring the Jamy resort so that the problems could be solved at least partially. Because in the present-day legislative context, it takes years to implement something. And that only if settlements that are passed by thousands of cars every day do not look for reasons why to prohibit it. How the resort and the settlement of Tatranská Lomnica manage to cope with the increasing number of tourists, only time will tell and so will the headlines in media, unfortunately,” concluded Bohuš Hlavatý.
