Tram Saga Over Wiesbaden

 Before Covid, I traveled a good bit....to every corner of the world.  There are various aspects that I always found interesting....mass transit.  The cities that had tram operations...had made it ultra-simple, cheap, and tourism flourished.  

Around six years ago in my regional town (Wiesbaden)....the city had some deal worked up with the state, and there was 'funding' to build their first-ever tram.  In some corners, people got excited.

I looked at the initial draft...it was one simple route....from the river...to the shopping district, and ending a mile or so beyond the shopping area.  In terms of a first initial step....it made sense.

So began this discussion and the city-planners thought it would be easy to sell this.  Well...they were wrong.

The people affected by the route (the construction, and noise) went fully against the design.  You had various neighborhoods....that were probably 90-percent against the tram discussion.  

The comical side of this....the city has reached a point where traffic is a 5-star problem.  There's actually some discussions going on....of making more inner-city areas a no-commute-zone....meaning no cars.  

The city council gave up the idea of just making decision  themselves, and figured in a ballot-measure....they'd get 50-plus percent.  They were wrong....in the weeks leading up to the vote....the anti-tram folks got out, and carried the theme to the public.

'No' won.

You can't proceed with a second vote, until 4 years have passed.....so we've reached a point where you can discuss a new draft plan and perhaps a new vote.

The odds of a different route this time?  Oh, I'd give that a possibility...picking a route where less people benefit,  but more accepting of a tram. There's a new suburb of the city being built on the SE end....half-way between mid-town and the river. 

Anger coming out of this....about being built and used by a lesser population?  Yeah, it's virtually guaranteed....to avoid the anti-tram crowd.   They will still get the buses in the end,  unless they make a big deal of getting a no-commute-zone.