Light Eye of Stuttgart21 [OC]

Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com to pics@lemmy.world – 186 points –

This was a guided tour of the future main station in Stuttgart called Stuttgart21.

More pictures: https://imgur.com/a/8QnDQrO
(Disclaimer: The descriptions could be wrong for the east/west orientation :P)

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They started this project 14(!) years ago, planned to be finished 2019, costing over 11 billion Euros.

Nobody wants it.

The site is still under construction (thought to be finished next year).

Wait, nobody asked for a new station?

It's "needed" to increase throughput.
The current head station is a head station meaning it ends here and then they do a U-turn and go back different direction.

Also it's planned as a fully digital station which is supposed to increase the throughput as well as the trains can be dynamically throttled when enetering the station.

Current trackplan:

Stuttgart 21:

Planned changes on a map:

39 trains per hour with the old station is still more than 32 per hour with Stuttgart 21. Also groundwater, nature and referendum are totally meaningless words for anyone supporting this idea.

May be. I just thought the tour was interesting and wanted to share a bit what I was told.

But you aren't wrong with your position.

Don't get me wrong. I like the architecture too. Just trying to sneak in some facts.

Honestly it seems like a sensible change. If I'm not mistaken Frankfurt Hbf is also a head station and you lose a ton of time because of it.

If I remember our guide correct, the current max speed into the main station is 50kp/h max vs S21 being at 80kph.
Because it's planned as the first fully digital station (meaning only digital equipped trains can pass due to signaling) it should be able to not require full stops or similar.

At least what the guide told us seemed all logical and dainty but it still is taking a ton of time and money.

Oh, there were ppl who wanted it, just not the people like you and me. They held a referendum: about 60% were against it.

Also: This is, what I will ever associate with the words Stuttgart21 and eye:

::: spoiler graphic

:::

(Lost one eye for being so criminal to protest against something the majority was against doing it.)

Please put a spoiler or disclaimer before that picture.
It's important to know but it's a bit too graphic. :/

You are right.

Put a spoiler tag around the image. Seems to work in browsers but not in my lemmy client (sync).

It's weird with some posts. Sometimes it works also on sync sometimes not...

it's famous for being almost 5 billion € over the initial budget of 4.5 billion.

It's like any budget planned in Germany (or the world) for mega projects like this.
But I can understand that considering this is (according to the guide) basically a full concrete-slab and cube underground made in basically one pour.

Is that already done? Remember the big protest against it 10years ago.

In the end how useless it is? And how much of a money pit it is/was

Not done and still in construction but I could see it being done by 2030 (at least so trains can fully drive through).
More pictures: https://imgur.com/a/8QnDQrO
(Disclaimer: The descriptions could be wrong for the east/west orientation :P)

Reminds me of Mirror’s Edge. I kind of love the concrete and ambient light, flat colours and shadows look!

It's interesting to see it from the inside. It has been in construction for as long as I've leaved here. It looks like the inside of a mother-ship of some alien species.

Of course there is a lot of controversy about this project. I feel rather neutral about it.

Same here. The tour was interesting and the offer to see what could not be seen or done easily (like entering the train tunnel) was something I couldnt pass.
But the things that happened before this is not something what should be forgot.

Aside from budget and time overruns it looks like they overshot the target of "futuristic" and landed in the middle of dystopian...