Wiesbaden and CityBahn

For almost two years now, Wiesbaden (my local metro area) has been on this mission to achieve a city trolly-car service (referred to as the CityBahn).

For those who weren't aware....Wiesbaden (population 285,000 and growing)...is one of the largest cities in Germany without a local tram or trolly-car operation.  It's mostly buses, with some S-Bahn trains which leave from the railway station to outlying villages/towns.

Some folks associated with the Hessen state authorities came up two years ago (after our local bridge fiasco) and offered up a chunk of money.  The immedate thought was that the city would build the 4th bridge over the Rhine (over a local island) and connect to Mainz.  Then a tram network would be started (connect to Mainz, which already has a trolly-car operation), and Wiesbaden would add a line every five years.  It all made sense on paper.

But then the environmental rule got thrown up.....you can't build a bridge over the Rhine....that goes over an island (yep, they had a national law for that stuff like that).  So they looked two miles up and down the river from that point, and nothing makes sense.....so the whole bridge idea (while being necessary)....ended.

Then we came to the CityBahn idea.

The funding would basically equal one long route, from the Mainz-Kastel bridge over to the Appelalle area, turn, and go toward the train station....passing it, and ending in the shopping district.

All hell broke loose, with various neighborhood groups anti-CityBahn.  A plan 'B'?  No, the city refused to consider any plan 'B'.

The attitude of the city and the pro-CityBahn folks?  You just don't grasp the dynamics of this, or the design.  There are facts, and you just lack the facts in understanding this.

So I noticed this morning, the city is going to have a 'event' down at the Rhein Main University of Applied Sciences building in Wiesbaden next week.  They will have two 'experts' who will talk over the issues and innovation of tram transport and how it's 'wunderbar' for Wiesbaden.

This has turned into a saga of sorts for the city.  The design and layout of the city, really doesn't work well with 285,000 residents.  Maybe in the 1930s, they had a chance to structure the city to fit for a rail network and have three or four routes instead of bus routes.  But they never made that decision.  Today?  You have various neighborhoods which are deemed 'quiet' and they don't want anything infringing that concept.

The fourth bridge?  Desperately needed because both Mainz (210,000) and Wiesbaden (285,000) continue to expand.  Both combined....probably will reach 550,000 in twenty-five years.  But this environmental law will prevent the bridge from ever occurring.

The anti-CiyBahn business?  What the general idea goes to....is that they want options....a different style route....a route of no-importance.  And after you build the route of no-importance?  Then they can whine that the money was wasted and wise leadership would have done this better.

If this fails?  I would generally suggest that city planners will mostly give up on ideas for the inner-city, and put their efforts into building improvements on the outer boundaries of Wiesbaden, where things would be more acceptable.  In some ways, it's the city that wants to grow 'small' and stay 'small'.