At first glance, the project looks like a normal gap closure.

A new building with 120 apartments is to be built at the Grossen-Linden train station a few kilometers from Giessen.

According to the plan, the buildings will be inserted between the railway tracks and a nearby road as an elongated complex.

All sorts of greenery has been growing there.

A citizens' initiative has saved a number of trees from uncontrolled growth for the future with protests.

Thorsten Winter

Business editor and internet coordinator in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

They look like a narrow green corridor between the planned new buildings and the street.

A case of densification in a small space.

From the point of view of representatives of the Gießen district association in the Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD), the project continues to give cause for inquiries and detailed criticism.

He is supported by the Pro Bahn passenger association.

It is about space for a foreseeable third and possible fourth track along with the necessary platforms.

From the point of view of the traffic club, a platform is simply missing on a project outline.

The VCD does not fundamentally oppose the construction project.

He wants to know that rail transport on the Main-Weser-Bahn and the stop in Grossen-Linden are secure for the future.

Incomplete documents

The VCD demanded in vain to postpone the decision of the city council and to wait for "significant documents".

On Tuesday, the majority of local politicians approved the development plan.

But VCD representative Patrik Jacob doesn't give up.

He sees the vote as disappointing.

"The resolutions pose a risk that an expansion of the Main-Weser railway will become more difficult, more expensive or even impossible," he says.

In view of the planned increases in freight and passenger traffic on the rails, this will create a bottleneck between Gießen and Friedberg, which could possibly be caused by a purely local construction project.

The concerns of a climate-friendly transport policy have still not reached everyone.

As part of his criticism, Jacob refers to the framework plan.

The valid regional plan for central Hesse stipulates that there should be enough space for a third and fourth track on the Main-Weser railway.

Whether this will still be guaranteed after the construction of the apartments has not been adequately examined.

"Two cross-sectional profiles of planned buildings and railway facilities were submitted, in which two additional tracks are drawn.

However, these drawings are deficient in crucial places,” says Jacob.

And: The regional council checked the construction plans on the basis of incomplete documents.

New profile drawing necessary

From his point of view, sufficient flexibility for future requirements is necessary.

Both side platforms and a central platform would have to remain possible, as would a shift in the track axes or an increase in line speed.

The draft of the new regional plan provides for a 15 meter wide corridor on both sides of the track system.

Planners and local politicians would have to take this into account with a view to the planned new building in Linden.

Last but not least, Jacob criticizes a cross-sectional drawing for the new building project, which shows two more tracks in addition to the two existing tracks, as well as the necessary masts for the overhead line.

"Unfortunately, a new platform is missing in the drawing, but it necessarily belongs to a station," says the VCD representative.

And he concludes: "Logically, the drawing cannot show that a third and fourth track, together with the necessary two outer platforms or one central platform, is possible and that the specifications of the regional plan are met." A new profile drawing is therefore necessary, according to the one expressly presented Criticism.

The regional council is in the face of the objections of the traffic club but not excited.

The construction limit of the planned buildings does not narrow the corridor for the possible new tracks.

According to the plan map, the eastern construction boundary shown in the development plan runs in a straight line and is nowhere nearer than six meters to the edge of the existing railway facilities.

The planned extension of the construction line of the new development plan meets the existing station building to the south.

This construction already represents a structural limit for plans that go beyond a track and a platform.

The possible third track is not on the property that is to accommodate the new building.

Only a possible outside platform could therefore protrude into the area covered by the development plan.

The authority is of the opinion that the pending closure of the gap will not impair or prevent the construction of a third and fourth track.

The regional council does not comment on the allegedly missing platform on the possible fourth track in the cross-sectional drawing.