Lake Constance Fast Ferry

Lake Constance Fast Ferry
Lake Constance Fast Ferry

Video: Lake Constance Fast Ferry

Video: Lake Constance Fast Ferry
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Anonim

Last weekend, a vote was taken in Constance for or against the catamaran high-speed ferry, which is to start its service between the two Lake Constance metropolises Constance and Friedrichshafen.

The opponents of the catamaran just failed to meet the quorum in the referendum on the planned shipping line. Although 15,221 citizens, and thus over 70 percent of those who voted, voted against the speedboat, around 1,500 votes were missing for the prescribed majority of 30 percent of all eligible voters. In view of the tight decision, the Constance Council has to sit down again. That should happen in January.

The catamaran opponents were happy about the clear result of the voters, but regretted the narrow failure. 16,714 citizens, or 30 percent of the 55,714 eligible voters, would have had to vote against the shipping line to bring the project down. The decision taken by the Konstanz municipal council in June 2001 to support the line is now valid.

Unequal opponents

The opponents of the catamaran, above all representatives of the interests of sailing, the Bodensee Seglerverband BSVb, had strongly opposed the project. They cited significant restrictions and hazards on the water and a significant increase in NOx emissions in the region. In view of the fact that the ships operated by the Konstanz and Friedrichshafen municipal utilities will rush across the lake every 45 minutes at a speed of 40 km / h from spring 2004, the vote "endangering other sea users" seems justified. And since the double-hulled boats are considered a means of public transport, all other water sports enthusiasts are obliged to avoid them. But which sailing boat, ideally equipped with a motor, can swing away so quickly? Not to mention dinghy sailors, canoeists and fishing boats. This applies equally to regatta yachts and vintage cars. Speaking of regattas: 135 regattas are planned on Lake Constance for the 2002 season. Some of them will now presumably be deleted from the program because they are held in the catamaran fairway and would be significantly disrupted by the ferry operations.

Objection

So now the 11 million mark project is being started. The operators hope to make a profit in four years. But there are still appeals at the administrative court in Freiburg that could jeopardize the project again. There is now a small chance that the opponents could thwart the proponents with their slogans "economic, traffic-related and ecological nonsense". The last word has therefore not yet been spoken in Constance.

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