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We examine the regional variance of the votes on the railway station project "Stuttgart 21". In addition to party partisanship, prospective regional advantages and their regionally specific relevance explain the voting behaviour in local districts. Thus, our findings contest previous journalistic and political interpretations of the voting behaviour, confirming the results of other studies on plebiscites. As in our case the overall voting results reflect parliamentary majorities, the use of plebiscites for increasing public participation seems questionable. Moreover, plebiscites may prevent the realisation of infrastructure projects in low-population areas, as the voting results also depend on the covariance of the regional advantages with the distribution of the population. In the light of these findings, alternatives ensuring public participation need to be considered. Adapted from the source document.