Mr. Wysocki, the black-red town hall coalition has rejected the tram connection to Frankfurt.

Does the no come as a surprise to you?

Mechthild Harting

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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no

Of course, I was always closely involved in the consultations.

And the coalition is not alone in its rejection.

And do you support the decision?

Yes.

When you presented the result of the potential study a year ago, when you were still the first city councilor and head of transport for the city of Vilbel, you sounded as if the tram could be an environmentally friendly contribution to local mobility.

Well, if you paid close attention to what I said at the time, then I was a bit reluctant.

This is because of the proposed routing.

Because the study has shown that the recommended solution means that the route from the Friedberger Warte in Frankfurt should not only lead via the Heilsberg and the Frankfurter Straße to the Südbahnhof in Bad Vilbel, but further through the whole city to the green corridor of the large development area Quellenpark, which is planned to the west of Bad Vilbel train station, which we all call Nordbahnhof in the city.

I saw this extension as a sticking point back then.

And I still see it that way.

You don't need to be a great connoisseur of Bad Vilbel to know: the route can only lead along Frankfurter Strasse and later Kasseler Strasse - this is the central axis through the spa town.

That was clear from the start.

The question is: Where should the tram go, to Südbahnhof?

That would be a proposal that would certainly have been further examined by a feasibility study.

But taking the route further to the new Quellenpark district and there into the green corridor is not what I can imagine.

In that case, the tram would run parallel to S-Bahn line 6 from Südbahnhof to Bad Vilbeler Bahnhof. Right from the start, I asked myself how great the additional benefit would be for Bad Vilbel.

Because after the expansion of the S 6, which is currently underway, it is faster to take the S-Bahn from Bad Vilbel to the Konstablerwache than a tram via Friedberger Landstrasse in Frankfurt.

From Bad Vilbel's point of view, would the solution have been to only run the tram to Südbahnhof?

The question does not arise.

The variant eligible for funding must go as far as the green corridor.

This was clearly shown by the potential study.

I think this proposal is difficult from an urban planning point of view.

Even if it were possible to take the shorter variant, questions arose.

Because the street space elsewhere, for example on Alte Frankfurter Straße, which leads over the Heilsberg, is extremely narrow.

Why did you start the tram project in the first place?

You have to look at the timing.

There was a time when the Frankfurt bus line 30, which runs from Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen to Bad Vilbel, was put on hold by the Frankfurt side because diesel buses were running on the line.

Are we talking about the time at the end of 2018 when Frankfurt was threatened with a driving ban for older diesel and petrol vehicles?

Yes.

At that time, the idea was to replace the bus with a more environmentally friendly tram.

The issue can now be solved differently thanks to modern bus technology.

So do you think that time has passed over this tram proposal?