From 5,000 miles away, it is difficult to tell what is going on in Stuttgart, Germany, where tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest against a $6 billion plan to replace the city’s World War I-vintage train station. Is the main concern the cost? The loss of a historic structure? Or the city’s plan to locate a “true pedestrian haven” on the site of tracks that will be moved underground?
It is probably all of these. One anonymous protester calls the project “a grave for taxes,” and many argue that the money would be better spent on other activities. It was originally supposed to cost about $3 billion, but the price tag is now double that, and this doesn’t even count another $3 billion for a new “high-speed” rail line to the airport.
