Feasibility report fails to lessen divide over German rail station

Jul 29, 2011, 16:00 GMT

Stuttgart, Germany - Neither German rail officials or opponents of a train station remodeling project seemed prepared to give much ground Friday during the official presentation of a feasibility report on the subject.

Although technically a local issue, Deutsche Bahn's Stuttart 21 plans to demolish parts of the historic Stuttgart rail station and move it underground has aroused emotions nationwide at times.

Protests last autumn led to clashes with police and left one man partially blind after police fired water cannons at close range. Televised images of that violence, in turn, has made many Germans question why average citizens are not more involved in decisions about German public life.

The disagreement prompted officials to call in a mediator, Heiner Geissler, to try to iron out differences between the sides. But the official presentation of the feasibility report Friday - called for in Geissler's mediation - did not seem to bring the sides any closer.

'This was no stress test. This was a fair weather operation with light turbulence,' said Brigitte Dahlbender, of the German environmental organization BUND.

Scores of protesters gathered outside Stuttgart's city hall during the daylong proceedings. Although they did not disrupt the meeting, their cheers and yells could be heard in the background of the televised debate.

Opponents say the building plans could cause environmental harm by felling old trees and hurting the habitat or certain insects. They also oppose the loss of the historic building and say the current facility is more than adequate for modern needs.

Deutsche Bahn officials want to turn the station into a more efficient thoroughfare for trains headed from Paris to points eastward. Currently, the station is a terminus; Trains entering have to depart back the way they came and connect with other lines to move on.

Specialists hired by the mediator said that simulations they conducted showed that the planned station could handle anticipated traffic. However, as the day wore on, Deutsche Bahn officials said they would be prepared to redo certain parts of the feasibility tests to show whether the planned station could handle anticipated traffic.

Opponents have latched on to other reports showing that plans for the station are already over budget.

Winfried Kretschmann, the premier of the southern German state of Baden Wuerttemberg, where Stuttgart is situated, has accepted the mediators' report. However, he has also called for a referendum on whether state money should go towards the project.

Kretschmann is from the Green party, which opposes Stuttgart 21. The opposition is believed to have helped bring Kretschmann to power earlier this year and made political calculus more troubling for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her governing coalition.