Tunnel or Double-Track Line? Participation Process in Teufen

Appenzell Railway trains currently run on a single-track line along the main road through the village of Teufen. Should the single-track line through Teufen be converted to a double-track line or should the trains circumnavigate the village in an underground tunnel? This question was put to village residents in a local referendum on 18 January 2015. More specifically, the residents were asked to vote on a loan to finance a CHF 30 million municipality contribution to the construction of a railway tunnel.

To establish a basis for making a decision, the two development proposals were examined in the context of an open process that was conceived to facilitate the participation of village residents, architects, traffic planners and finance experts as well as representatives of the Teufen Municipal Council, the Appenzell Cantonal Council and the Appenzell Railways Company.

EBP was commissioned by the municipality of Teufen to help it develop the participatory process and to manage all aspects of its implementation. This work included the drafting of future scenarios for the village centre and the village thoroughfare together with the relevant stakeholders and the coordination of two teams of architects to draft plans for the village thoroughfare based on the scenarios.

Our general project management services included:

• Process development
• Project governance implementation
• Organisation of referendum events
• Management of two teams of architects
• General project management

Our city and regional planning services included:

• Structural analysis of the village (qualities, challenges and alignment of various village districts)
• Drafting of future village scenarios and their revision after discussion events
• Assessment of the sustainability aspects of the two proposals

Our communications management team assisted us when it came to the public relations work relating to the process and the referendum.