Regardless of whether it is the Franconian Expressway, the ICE maintenance facility or the city-surrounding railway: In the Nuremberg metropolitan region, there is a fatal calmness when it comes to necessary transport projects.
A few years ago, a Nuremberg cookbook was called “Sadd und Dsufriedn,” which was soon followed by a second and third volume with recipes for vegetarian dishes and baked goods. The success was no coincidence, because “full and satisfied” generally reflects the mood of the Franconian city of half a million people and its surrounding area. At least when it comes to large and important transport projects. For example, there is the Frankenschnellweg, an important highway on which tens of thousands of cars are stuck in traffic every day at a traffic light-controlled bottleneck in the middle of Nuremberg and pollute the air with their exhaust fumes. The intersection-free expansion has been failing for decades because of a few people, but also because of a lack of political determination.