The second main line of the S-Bahn will be massively more expensive and will be completed much later than planned. According to information from Süddeutsche Zeitung one expects in Munich that the costs will rise from 3.8 to five billion euros. The first trains are not scheduled to run in 2028 as planned, but in 2033 at the earliest. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is expected to attend a crisis meeting on Thursday. In the State Chancellery, he is to inform Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), the Bavarian Minister of Transport Christian Bernreiter (CSU) and the Mayor of Munich, Katrin Habenschaden (Greens), about the new breakdowns and how to proceed.
Munich is threatened with an almost endless construction site well into the 2030s. Most clearly visible in the center are the works at the Marienhof directly behind the town hall, but there is also a lot of work going on in Laim. At the other end of the planned tunnel at the Ostbahnhof, however, the railway still does not have valid building rights, the necessary planning approval process is still ongoing. There she had moved the underground station of the second trunk line from Orleansplatz to the other side of the railway tracks in Friedenstrasse in the ongoing process.
In Munich City Hall, everyone is deeply concerned about the news about the second regular route. At the summit in the State Chancellery of Federal Minister of Transport Wissing, the second mayor, Haben Schaden, primarily wanted to know how such cost increases and delays could have come about. “There have always been rescheduling. But why is it so massive this time?” is not the only question that has been asked in City Hall. And she pushes two of the most pressing questions afterwards. “Will the main route be continued at all? Who will bear the additional costs?” 1.2 billion lie between the last official statement by Deutsche Bahn and the five billion now expected.
There was a series of glitches and rescheduling
At the groundbreaking ceremony for the second trunk line five years ago, Deutsche Bahn announced that the first trains should run in 2026. Since then there has been a series of glitches and rescheduling. At the main station, the stop was subsequently moved by 80 meters. The four excavation pits originally planned at Marienhof ultimately became just one in order to make progress faster and more cost-effectively. One of the biggest changes was the relocation of the station at Ostbahnhof. As a result, the railways changed their rescue concept for the second trunk route and decided to create a third tube instead of emergency exits.
But it is not only the future of the second regular route that makes Mayor habenschaden worried, but also possible further consequences for Munich. She fears that federal funding for local public transport could only go to the S-Bahn project by the mid-2030s. Conversely, this would mean that there would be no more money left over from Berlin for all other projects. “And that’s because of a development that the city can’t do anything about,” says the mayor angrily.
The city could now quickly make a decision that would also involve about half a billion euros for itself. Because during the ongoing work for the second trunk line at the main station, the basis for a new underground station that Munich would need for the planned U9 would have to be laid there. This additional north-south axis is intended to relieve the existing lines U3 and U6 and is described by the Munich Transport Company (MVG) as the “heart of the urgently needed traffic turnaround”. For technical reasons, the stop at the main station must already be implemented to a large extent as part of the construction of the second trunk line. The city would have to pre-finance the future subway station. For this, at least in hindsight, federal funding would have to flow. “We can’t finance the holding structure alone,” said habenschaden.
The planned extension of the U5 from Laimer Platz to Pasing is not affected by a possible lack of federal subsidies. The city will pay the estimated billion for the more than three-kilometer route itself. But as part of the traffic turnaround aimed at by the green-red city hall coalition, a massive expansion of local public transport is also planned, for example a significant extension of the tram network. If the city wanted to achieve the climate goals declared by the federal government, 40 billion euros would have to flow into the expansion of local public transport in the greater area by 2040, said MVG boss Ingo Wortmann at the end of April at the celebration of the 50th birthday of the Munich S-Bahn.