Viennese monument protection officer on the uprising: historical houses before demolition!

Viennese monument protection officer on the uprising: historical houses before demolition!

Elterleinplatz, 1170 Wien, Österreich - Vienna faces a historical conflict: two important old buildings could fall victim to the construction of subway stops. Conclusiv, as the Krone , are to be demolished at Elterleinplatz and Währinger Gürtel 41 two listed houses to create space for access to the new U5 line, which is to be realized by 2025. This measure has not only alerted the monument protectors, but also the residents who fight for the preservation of the cultural heritage.

The debate about the necessary demolition is ignited from the question of whether modern traffic projects can endanger the historical architecture of Vienna. Monument and city protection protectors have pushed to a petition that demanded integration of the new stations into the existing historical stock. However, this was rejected on the grounds that public transport had priority and that the Viennese lines act independently. "Public to go to aesthetics," said a source from the city administration, which the initiators of the petition see as a advanced argument, as the reported.

The expansion of the U5 and U2 subway lines already has fixed time frames. According to the Wiener-Linien managing director Günter Steinbauer, the first two sections of the route are to be put into operation in 2023, while the U5 should be completed by 2025. These decisions should help to cope with the increasing number of passenger numbers and to increase the public transport share of the red-green city government. The persistent increase in population numbers requires a well -developed infrastructure to reach a billion passengers by 2020.

The city government also plans to introduce a new mobility card to combine different means of transport and to grant discounts for regular customers, which should further boost the use of public transport. But while the transport infrastructure is expanded, the question remains open at what price this growth comes, especially if the city's cultural heritage is at stake.