In a letter to Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), the eight district administrators of the districts belonging to the Munich Transport and Transport Association called for an “S-Bahn Munich emergency plan” and rapid improvements to the system and, above all, investments in the infrastructure. In addition, the district administrators, including Munich’s incumbent Christoph Göbel (CSU), have sharply criticized the delays in the construction of the second main line, which, according to the latest findings, will not be able to go into operation until 2037 at the earliest. According to the message, this date should not simply be accepted. Rather, what is needed now is “a clear and joint signal from the federal and state governments as well as Deutsche Bahn to continue the construction of the second main line undeterred despite the impending delays and price increases,” the letter says.
Anger about “sometimes very poor performance”
What Göbel and his counterparts denounce is not new knowledge, but the renewed anger at the “sometimes very poor performance” of the Munich S-Bahn can be clearly read from the letter. Again and again, passengers from the region “in a very large number” brought complaints to them, according to the district administrators, people would report “daily annoyances”, many turned away from the S-Bahn because it was unreliable. “If you want to call a spade a spade, you unfortunately have to say that the railway infrastructure in the greater Munich area has not kept pace with passenger development over the last few decades,” criticize the district administrators. “The necessary measures, the considerable delay of which we are now receiving, should – as we all know – have been implemented years ago.”
In addition to the speedy completion of the second main line, the district administrators are now demanding that the Free State, the Bavarian railway company and the municipalities clarify together with the railways how the S-Bahn service can be expanded before the second tunnel in Munich is put into operation, ” well before 2030″ and the completion of the so-called grid-supplementing measures. It is said that the S-Bahn must finally meet its responsibility for a functional and efficient rail network. In addition, the 43 specific measures listed by the Free State in the “Railway Expansion Region Munich” program would have to be pursued, examined in a timely manner and implemented as quickly as possible. Investments now have priority, emphasize the district administrators, and not the “tariff gifts that are currently being discussed everywhere in the political sphere”.