We had a rather different type of demonstration yesterday in Wiesbaden.
For a number of months, folks have been hyped up (either in the positive sense or the negative sense) over the idea of a tram being introduced in the city of Wiesbaden.
Yesterday, a protest was organized by the pro-tram folks, and around 600 gathered up at the train station and marched to the center of town.
I probably would expect the anti-tram folks to have a demonstration in the next two weeks.
What all of this is about?
Wiesbaden is a city of 290k residents, and growing. It's one of the largest cities in Germany, without a subway or tram system. There is a S-Bahn system that does connect to nine of the local neighborhoods/regions. A discussion started up around three years ago, and the city political folks found a willing nature from the state/federal level to fund a tram.
The original idea was another bridge would be built (the three bridges are now maxed out). That went nowhere because of the limitations issue. So the tram concept came up.
Where would it lead from? At the Wiesbaden side of the river.....in Mainz-Kastel. It would run along the river, then head north to the city train station, onto the downtown area, and lead out to the NW of the city (approximately 20 km away). The belief is that they'd convince around 100k drivers in the region to give up private auto.
The anti-tram crowd? This goes along three lines....too expensive, too noisy, and too much vibration along the route.
The vote? A city vote among residents will occur approximately 7 weeks. They need 15-percent of the population to vote....to make it official. This being a one-topic election....is going to limit people coming. If the no vote wins or fewer than 15-percent show up....then the whole thing goes away and will not be constructed.
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