Election Stuff

Campaign signs went up today around Wiesbaden.....in roughly six weeks, three elections occur.  The first is the EU representative election, which typically doesn't more than 60-percent of the registered voters.  The second election, is the city council situation (to include the mayor), and that doesn't really attract that much attention either.  Then we have that weird public referendum....over the city bahn (the tram or rapid-rail).  On this one issue, there might be 70-percent of folks who show up to vote.

Wiesbaden is one of Germany's largest cities, without a tram or subway system (approaching 290,000 residents).  The city functions with a S-Bahn system that connects to maybe seven neighborhoods, and then goes onto Mainz, Frankfurt, or the larger towns.  On top of that, the city of Wiesbaden operates around 30 to 40 bus routes (natural gas, diesel, and now electrical). 

For years, Wiesbaden discussed the tram idea, and it went nowhere.  About four years ago, there was the hint of public funding for this. 

The original discussed idea was that they'd go and build 'fourth' bridge to cross the Rhine....making it a car and tram bridge, and the logical location was near island area of Wiesbaden.  Virtually everyone in town was for this idea.  Then it came out that building bridges over islands was the 'holy grail' of problems with the environmentalists.  It simply couldn't be done. 

After that issue, then came the tram route....basically from the 'tent' in Mainz-Kastel (crossing the river and connecting Mainz/Wiesbaden tram requirements).  That route would ease down along the river, and somewhere around Biebrich....it'd turn and head north toward the train station, and then head the shopping district. 

Once this route came out, the neighborhood associations went ballistic....it'd pass by various neighborhoods, and create 'noise' (the rumble). Groups banded together and over a one-year period....they made this a basic root-canal experience. 

No one is polling the tram referendum but I would speculate that somewhere between forty and fifty percent of the town is negative about the tram. 

You have to remember....we aren't even talking about three or four routes in the city yet, just one single route, the first route.

The traffic situation in Wiesbaden?  Well, this is the unusual part of the story.  Back in the 1980s, you could easily driven around the city and not encountered great traffic.  Over the past decade?  In the rush-hour periods, you can add 20 to 30 minutes now onto your travels.  They probably should have gone to trams back in the 1990s, and just missed their opportunity.

So the vote kinda matters.  Even if the bahn/tram passes, it'll be challenged in court for two or three years.