The initiative Verkehrswende now! the initiation of a referendum against the A26 train station motorway will start on May 17, 2021. Here is the press text for the press conference that took place directly in the Linz train station district, which this city motorway would turn into a traffic hell. Please help collecting signatures!
Yes to traffic turnaround instead of traffic hell!
Yes to a liveable and climate-friendly Linz!
The “Initiative Verkehrswende now!” Begins today with the collection of signatures for the initiation of a referendum against the A26 train station motorway in Linz. Instead of wasting the money on this major road project that increases car traffic, it is to be invested in a climate-, environment- and people-friendly traffic turnaround that reduces car traffic. This referendum campaign is supported by a rapidly growing, meanwhile over 50-member referendum committee.
From 2024 the so-called A26 train station motorway is to be built, the second and by far the most expensive part of the A26 Westring motorway. According to ASFINAG, this motorway would Almost 30,000 additional car journeys every day via a tunnel through the Freinberg to the city center of Linz. That means: More harmful emissions, fine dust and microplastics, more climate-damaging greenhouse gases, more noise and less quality of life. The exhaust ventilation system for the planned tunnel on Waldeggstrasse would destroy the air quality in the station district, ex-LILO residential complexes, Froschberg and Post City. Traffic jams are not prevented, but shifted to the center of the city and made even worse.
The costs for the entire A26 motorway have tripled since the initial planning. It is currently said to have already swallowed 743 million euros, and the final bill is probably over a billion realistic. We and our descendants will have to pay for it!
For comparison:
- Corresponding more than 3,000 times of the annual Linz cycling budget.
- This could make approx. 100 kilometers of rail infrastructure be relocated (that would be the length of the Ischler plus Gallneukirchnerbahn, for example)
- This could give every commuter from the upper Mühlviertel a future 365 Euro ticket for all public transport in Upper Austria – 182 years!
Although the budget of the city of Linz is already very tight, the city wants to pay 5 percent of the cost of this motorway; these are currently around 37 million euros – and that threatens to become even more so because it no cost cap gives.
The alternatives to the A26 train station motorway are therefore obvious. We need one climate-, environment- and people-friendly transport turnaround, that means:
- Priority for public transport, especially for the quick connection of the Mühlkreisbahn to Linz Central Station. Once the new railway bridge has been completed, this could be done quickly – and much cheaper! – be realized over the already existing route of the port railway.
- More investments in attractive and safe cyclingwho still has a lot of room for improvement, especially in Linz. Almost half of all car journeys in Linz are less than 5 kilometers – the ideal distance for cycling. The expansion of the main cycle route network in the greater Linz area is currently going on at a snail’s pace. If things continue at the current pace, it would take 140 years to build these cycle paths.
- Intelligent room planningwhich makes it possible to avoid unnecessary traffic. For example, the Postcity project at Linz’s main train station could become a showcase project for car-free living instead of – as currently planned – with thousands of underground parking spaces, pulling even more car traffic into the city center via the A26.
IT’S NOT TOO LATE YET! POPULAR SURVEY!
With 6,100 signatures we can force a referendum in which the people of Linz can vote themselves whether these tax millions are wasted on a Stone Age project like the A26 train station motorway, the financing and construction of which is not even the responsibility of the city of Linz – or whether it is future-oriented in an environmentally, Climate- and people-friendly traffic turnaround flows where the financial means diverted into the construction of the autobahn are lacking. So, priority for trains, buses, trams, bicycles and pedestrians. If we Linz residents say YES to this in a referendum, it is also an unequivocal request to the federal government to refrain from building the A26 train station motorway and instead support Linz in implementing the traffic turnaround. Such a traffic turnaround should enable motorists to switch to safe, stress-free, cheaper, healthier, environmentally and climate-friendly forms of mobility. YES to traffic turnaround instead of traffic hell! Yes to a liveable & climate-friendly Linz!
The The traffic turnaround initiative now! – a network of 20 citizens’ initiatives and associations – has therefore initiated a referendum on the A26 train station motorway. This campaign is supported by a non-partisan referendum committee, to which more than 50 people now belong, who come from different political and social backgrounds. Many of them are active in citizens’ groups.
CENTURY DECISION FOR LINZ
We work closely with the Initiative “No Transit Linz” together, which recently initiated a referendum initiative against the planned Linz east motorway. Both motorways – the A26 motorway and the Ostautobahn – would lead to an enormous additional volume of traffic in our city. Even the politically responsible count on it 80,000 additional car journeys to and from Linz daily until 2030when these mega-roads are built. That would be an increase in car traffic by more than a third! In exactly the same decade in which the UN Climate Council will decide whether we can still prevent a climate collapse, two additional city highways are to be built in Linz. That is irresponsible and hostile to the future. We want to prevent that through these referendums. Whether we succeed in this will be a matter of transport and climate policy for the greater Linz area – and beyond Decision of the century be. With these referendums, we can shape this decision in a sustainable and future-oriented direction.
We will apply additional pressure for this matter to the nationwide traffic turnaround days on June 11th and 12th do! In Linz we will be there with our alliance partners on Friday, June 11th, 2021 from 3 p.m. organize a climate and traffic turnaround demonstration on the Nibelungen Bridge.
Participants in the press conference
- Günther Eberhardt (Initiative Arch Pro Linz)
- Maria Haas (resident)
- Heinrich Hirsch (climate activist)
- Roswitha Hölzl (social worker, resident)
- Anni Jank (Citizens’ Initiative Preservation and Protection of the Water Forest in Haid)
- Armin Kraml (Works Council, Initiative No Transit Linz)
- Erwin Leitner (Initiative More Democracy)
- Gerda Lenger (activist against the A26 motorway)
- Gerald Oberansmayr (Initiative Verkehrswende now!)
- Welf Ortbauer (Linz Tree Rescue Initiative)
- Andreas Schütz (activist at Fridays for Future Linz)
- Hans Stiasny (local resident)
- Christian Trübenbach (citizens’ initiative to protect Linz green belt, now!)
- Nimrod Varga (Climakivist)
Contact:
The traffic turnaround initiative now!
Referendum committee for the A26 train station motorway
Waltherstrasse 15, 4020 Linz
www.volksbefragung-a26-bahnhofsautobahn.at
Request signature lists for initiating the referendum from
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There is a traffic turnaround folder with signature lists for download
10 arguments against the A26 train station motorway Continue reading
See also SOLiNZ-Solidarisches Linz
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