I must say, the organizers of the International Transportation Forum here in Leipzig practice what they preach.
The theme is “seamless connectivity” in transportation, and the tramway from the hotel downtown to the convention centre a few kilometres away is a fairly quick ride – and direct, practically door to door. At several stops, there is an announcement for other tram lines and connecting regional trains. It’s also a much better mode of transport for a newcomer to a city than the subway – big windows and panoramic views.
The convention centre is a piece of work in itself. Imagine two Mirabel airport terminals – yes, you have to be of a certain age to do that – facing each other and separated by a huge reflecting pool. The ultra-modern glass, concrete and and steel structures seem to live in a world of their own in a bucolic setting, far from the former East German urban blight that many, many billions of Euros in reconstruction have not altogether succeeded in erasing from the city itself.
“My western German’s tax dollars at work,” said snidely one conference organizer, explaining that what was once West Germany pays an 8-per-cent tax to build up the former communist east, of which Leipzig was a major centre. Its offensively ugly “architecture” survives here and there. Brrrrr ….
The resentful taxpayer was cynical about the benefits of the tax – and, 22 years after German reunification, dubious it would ever go away. We Montrealers know all about that – remember the Big O.
