Indeed there have already been plans for a tram line from Hauptbahnhof to O-Dorf in the beginning of the 1980s. But back then, politicians decided for a new trolley bus system, simply because it seemed cheaper.
Today, we have a completely different situation. All (!) major political parties on both provincial and municipal levels _multiply_ decided for and not against tram and Stadtbahn. One major reason for this is that the trolley bus system provided not enough capacity. In other words: they tried the trolley bus and after a while it just failed.
City and province do have the money. The budget of € 78M (which is the part of the total costs the city will have to pay) was already confirmed in 2004, since then the costs raised and the city will have to pay around € 110M. In "Stadtblatt", a local newspaper, vice mayor Eugen Sprenger said on September 12th: "We have a depot of more than € 105M" (http://www.strassenbahn.tk/inntram/download/newspress/20070911-1_stadtblatt.jpg). The city of Innsbruck has absolutely _no_ financial problem, it massively reduced public debt during the last ~15 years and can afford projects like this.
However, I discussed this issue so many times during the last two (or so) years that I‘m really tired of it... if some people from somewhere far away like Stefan think they are in absolute knowledge of everything that happens in other cities even more than local experts who precisely watch issues in question since almost ten years - then be it. As for me, I have no doubt that tram and Stadtbahn are soon to be built as proposed.
Besides this, I would really like to see a third trolley bus system on different routes. But this is another story.
Btw, Stefan: the "Stillegung" article you quoted points to my web site, strassenbahn.tk. It seems you even don‘t really read and understand articles. It says that a piece of 200 m tram track will be closed. Instead of passing the pedestrian zone in northern Maria-Theresien-Strasse, line 3 will additionally serve Bürgerstrasse and Marktplatz by following a diversion route. So the line is becoming _longer_, not shorter.
Manni
Geändert von Manni Schneiderbauer am 30.Sep.2007 0:27
http://64773.forumromanum.com/member/forum/forum.php?USER=user_64773&action=std_show&entryid=1101080531&threadid=2