This text attempts to examine the structuring of the urban environment, taking into account the geographically traditional spatial aspects of various phenomena as well as their temporal characteristics. Places are anchored in time and time in turn may be said to unfold in space. It is thus impossible to achieve an understanding of space without the necessary temporal dimension; indeed, the debate over the conceptualization of timespace has gained considerable currency in the social sciences. This text forms a response to this point of interest, providing a discussion of the chronotopic approach. The first part examines the concept of time and timespace, respectively, in the social sciences; particular attention is paid to the non-trivial aspects of the relationship between time and space. The abovementioned chronotope analytical and interpretive model is utilized throughout. For the purposes of this article, the model is defined as a specific part of the urban space defined by a unique temporality, i.e. based on a specific combination of overlapping rhythms. Such an approach opens up the possibility of regionalization on the basis of a specific temporality on different spatial scales. The empirical part of the text attempts to characterize the differentiation of urban space in Brno on the basis of a spectral analysis of three selected rhythms-the work cycle of a given locale, average duration of shopping session and public transport frequency. Model cases of selected urban chronotopes are subsequently developed on the basis of the rhythmicity of these activities.

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This paper examines the transformation of the postindustrial city in terms of its temporal structure. It takes concepts of time geography, routine, and rhythmicity of the classic Lund school, Lefebvre's analysis of rhythms, and Crang's geographic application of the chronotope concept as its starting points. Analyzing changes in the city bus transport services in Brno between 1989 and 2009, the paper attempts to capture in empirical terms the onset of the postindustrial phase of the city's development. While temporality of an industrial city can be characterized by a shared rhythm determined by a small number of dominant pacemakers (industrial plants), the deindustrialized city is associated with a significant weakening of such pacemakers cutting across the society and thus with a distinctive individualization of urban rhythmicity.

Rail transport is an environmentally friendly form of passenger transport which can be utilized effectively also in urban and suburban transport systems. The paper describes the urban and suburban rail transport system including comparison of selected Czech (Prague, Brno and Ostrava) and German metropolitan regions (Munich, Nuremberg and Dresden). Its aim is to analyze the importance of various factors influencing the differences between the situation in Germany and in the Czech Republic. Therefore, the research question is whether these differences are primarily caused by a different liberalization stage, or whether they are a result of other factors such as available infrastructure, investment level, rail transport services budget, structure and activity of ordering bodies and coordinators or geographical context. The supply of city and suburban rail transport is quite good in Germany and in the Czech Republic, although trains in Munich, Nuremberg and Dresden run more frequently, faster and are better interconnected with car transport. German rail transport sector is at a higher stage of liberalization, and tendering procedures are the preferred selection method for contractor carriers. However, a degree of liberalization of the railway sector is not the key marker indicating a better standard of urban and suburban rail transport in Germany because it is the high standard which is achieved as the consequence of the professional activity of the ordering bodies and train service coordinators in combination with geographical conditions, available financial sources and effective transport infrastructure. On the other hand, the importance of liberalization cannot be totally overlooked as tenders are a tool for the ordering bodies to strongly affect the price and quality of transport services in their area. The supply of better quality and attractive transport to passengers could increase the usage of rail transport in metropolitan regions and could have indirect but important socio-economic impacts

The article analyses railway transport markets in three neighbouring Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany (specifically Bavaria and Saxony), with a focus on regional transportation. It examines the organisational form of public transport resulting from regionalisation and provides comparative case studies of regional train services in these countries. The article points out the organisational differences in public transportation between the studied regions and tries to connect these results with the supply of regional train services on various types of lines and in different geographical areas.