1. The Swiss recently celebrated the breakthrough in the Gotthard Base Tunnel. Europe will profit from having this 57-kilometer-long tunnel – the longest in the world.
“The tunnel is motivated by a deliberate policy of transferring traffic from roads to rail.
“Many stand to gain from this ‘one for all policy.’ The Gotthard Base Tunnel is not only a service for Europe, as they are fond of saying in Switzerland; the transfer from road to rail will also do the country itself a service because this form of transporting goods reduces the strain of individual transport on people and environment alike.
“Experts estimate that the transport of goods through the Alps will increase by 70 percent and the transport of people by 75 percent in the next 20 years.”
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitiung
2. Preliminary work began to clear the exterior of the central station in Stuttgart and make way for its transformation. The station will no longer be a terminus, but an underground through-station, so that trains do not have to go in and out, but can speed right through.
Supporters say this will reduce travel times, create around 4,000 new jobs and encourage investment. The aim is to make Stuttgart part of one of the longest high-speed lines in Europe – linking Paris, Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.
The so-called “Stuttgart 21” project, however, has caused controversy, because many feel it is too expensive. It will cost around 7 billion euros ($9 billion) to overhaul the station. Environmental campaigners say the new master plan is unnecessary and that it will make only a limited change to rail traffic. The current rail station is a popular landmark in Stuttgart, and residents are worried about it becoming redundant.
The issue is set to be a major factor in March elections in the state of Baden-Württemberg, which is currently governed by Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU).
Source: dw-world.de
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
If politicians in the country really cared about the environment– which they don’t– we would have high speed rail. It should be done by the railways, not Via. They got all the land for free, they should provide the service. Better to even subsidise CP and CN than leave it to a government department.
“If God wanted us to fly He would not have given us the railroad.”
Michael Flanders & Donald Swann
The Stuttgart 21 controversy already has a long lifespan. Long enough for its issues to become manifold. Its 20th century faces are the familiar ones of environment, heritage, wider economic integration, and escalating project costs. Familiarity doesn’t breed easy resolution, though – they carry on. Stuttgart 21′s 21st century issues are emerging underneath, intensified by images of a senior with eyes damaged by water cannons, as an evolution of public decision-making: “deliberative democracy” vs. “representative democracy”.
These concepts may become useful on the Canadian urban scene. For one, there’s Ottawa’s current response to the failure of representative democracy in the Mayor O’Brien / Lansdowne Park / Shenkman trade-show centre process. For another, let’s watch inner Toronto’s moderate responses to the program of the Ford administration.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/24/stuttgart-21-failure-deliberative-democracy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuttgart_21
After all that happened – even if 70 years ago – the idea that Muslims must adopt German culture seems a bit strange. However, it will probably happen anyway in a generation or two.