When the vote was finally taken, it seemed to some of the local councilors that their arm suddenly weighed a ton: many of Hohenbrunn’s local politicians had dreamed of a major solution for the redesign of the Hohenbrunn S-Bahn station, of two platforms with ramps for wheelchair users and parents prams and a wide underpass that connects the new district “Hohenbrunn West” to be built with the village center. But at an extraordinary meeting of the committee on Tuesday evening, in which two railway managers answered all the detailed questions, it soon became clear that only the minimum solution would be possible. On the one hand for financial reasons, but also because this is the only way to guarantee speedy completion, ideally in time for the opening of the new secondary school, which is scheduled to take place in 2026. This means that the station will continue to have only one island platform between the two tracks, the only significant improvement over the current status will be a new elevator.
Individual municipal councils were served accordingly towards the end of the session: “We only have a theoretical freedom of choice,” said Manfred Haucke (citizens’ forum), visibly angry. And Wolfgang Schmidhuber (Greens), who has been campaigning for the conversion of the S-Bahn station for years and has vehemently drummed up the drum for it in recent weeks, stated with gnashing teeth: “It remains unsatisfactory. This solution does not offer any real accessibility and no reasonable district connection.”
The representatives of Deutsche Bahn (DB) initially presented all possible variants for the conversion of the station in a presentation, also providing forecast data for the time when the residential area west of the station will be occupied: While today around 1370 passengers a day in Hohenbrunn, it should be 2800 in 2035 and even 3600 in 2040. A 210 meter long platform with a height of 96 centimeters, a 53 meter long roof and a weather shelter would be sufficient for this. The underpass would have the minimum width of 2.50 meters, which would only allow pedestrians, but no cyclists. “With these dimensions, even 600 more passengers would be possible,” said Sven Belger, Head of Planning Bavaria South at DB Station & Service.
His colleague Herbert Kölbl, Head of Sales Mobility Bavaria at DB Station & Service, added on the subject of accessibility that more than one elevator per platform is not eligible. However, this is usually sufficient: “In the entire Munich S-Bahn area, the availability of the elevators is 97 percent.” This value is updated daily. DB has hired service providers who are obliged to repair a defective elevator within two hours, if someone is locked in an elevator, someone has to be there within 30 minutes to free the person.
Enormous conversions would be required for two platforms – that could cost up to 30 million euros
As is so often the case, money was responsible for the fact that a solution with two platforms was ultimately out of the question. The solution that is now being pursued with only one platform is estimated at around eleven million euros in total, of which the municipality must bear at least three million euros itself with appropriate funding, Mayor Stefan Straßmair (CSU) expects more like four to five million euros, “especially if we want to add a wider underpass or other things”. On the other hand, Kölbl assumes that the variant with the two outer platforms would have been up to 30 million euros more expensive – for the municipality, which is already financially strapped by numerous projects such as an indoor swimming pool and sports campus, a new secondary school, the renovation of public facilities and the construction of a new Feststadel cannot be paid for with grants. In this case, it would not be the purchase of land for the station, which would then be twice as wide, that would account for the majority of the additional costs, but extensive renovations: you would need two new points, the overhead lines and signals would have to be adapted and the level crossing on Kirchstockacher Straße would also have to be completely renovated.
After the vote, the concrete planning phase will now begin, and the tendering process will be prepared over the summer, Belger said. At the same time, the financing of the conversion had to be fixed. Straßmair emphasized that there have not yet been any binding commitments for state funding. “If we can’t find a sponsor in the end, then we’ll just have to end the project early,” said the mayor, pointing out that the municipality could no longer be blamed if the dilapidated train station was opened next to the new secondary school accident happen.