Weil gives the green light

Yesterday evening, Weil's councillors finally approved the tram extension from Basle to Weil, the result being 22 to 10 votes in favour of giving the project the green light. Amid all the excitement, it almost escaped everyone's attention that Oberbürgermeister Dietz abstained from casting his vote. Supposedly, he decided not to vote out of respect for his Christian Democrat colleagues, most of whom were against the motion.

The turning point in this whole saga came a week and a half ago, when Willi Stächele - who is due to become in the next finance minister for Baden-Württemberg next July - turned up at the town hall in person to confirm that the state would make a significant contribution to funding the project. This came as a huge relief, and certainly what Weil had been hoping for. Dietz subsequently intimated that the state of the town's accounts was now a little better than previously assumed and that Weil may yet be able to close the gap in financing that was originally the cause of so much prevarication on the German side.

Anyway, if all goes to plan, Weil should have a tram link direct to Basel from the beginning of 2012.