Germany's multi-billion rail masterplan is divisive

Protestors have come out in force against a 7-billion-euro (US$9-billion) grand plan to turn Stuttgart and the surrounding region into a 21st-century continental rail hub.

The nine-year project aims to make the southwestern city part of one of the continent's longest high-speed lines, the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) “Magistrale for Europe” linking Paris, Strasbourg, Vienna and Bratislava.

Engineers plan to blast 16 tunnels and cuttings into the many surrounding hills, build 18 new bridges, lay 60 kilometers of new train track and create three new stations.

Stuttgart's terminus will be utterly transformed into an underground through-station, so that trains no longer have to chug in and back out but can whisk passengers on to other European cities.

The project will also give a boost to the 10-million-strong state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, home to industrial giants like Daimler, Porsche and Bosch as well as legions of family-owned engineering firms that supply factories the world over.

“Around 2.5 million people live in the Stuttgart region and they are stuck in traffic morning, noon and night,” Stuttgart 21's spokesman Wolfgang Drexler told AFP. “There have been no major construction projects here for 20 years.”

But people in the middle-class and normally sleepy state capital are angry, saying the project is far too expensive and disruptive and will fail to speed up rail traffic.

Thousands have taken part in protests in recent weeks. On Friday about 30,000 demonstrators rallied in the city, protest organizers said.

“It's a load of nonsense,” one well-heeled 81-year-old woman who declined to give her name told AFP. “People won't stand for it.”

“We citizens feel cheated,” chimed in Frank Dvorschak, 54, a headteacher, a green protest badge on his lapel. “I come to the demos when I can, with my whole family. It is growing more and more.”

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