The people in Tübingen have spoken out against an inner city route of the planned light rail.
A majority of 57.39 percent voted against the project in a referendum on Sunday, as the city announced in the evening.
42.61 percent of the approximately 69,000 voters who were entitled to vote spoke out in favor of the project.
The turnout in the university town was 78.41 percent.
This significantly exceeded the quorum of 20 percent of those entitled to vote.
The plan for an inner city route for the Neckaralb regional light rail system was very controversial in Tübingen and had attracted numerous supporters and critics alike.
However, the city and university had clearly backed the project.
The inner city route should lead from the main train station over the Neckar bridge over the inner city clinic and the botanical garden to the east of the city.
The light rail is intended as a supplement to the bus system.
On routes operated by the regional light rail, the train is to replace the bus.
The regional light rail is the largest infrastructure project in the Neckar-Alb region with around 700,000 people.
The existing railway lines in the surrounding area are to be used and connected to the city centers via tram lines.
The first parts of the light rail network are already under construction.
The length of the entire network will later be 205 kilometers.
According to the current state of planning, investments of around 230 million euros plus planning costs would be necessary for the construction of the Tübingen inner city route.
The costs for planning and building the Neckar-Alb regional light rail system amount to around 2.1 billion euros.