A year ago, as part of the first public transport construction program, the city council decided, among other things, to build four new tram lines: the west tangent tram, the Munich north tram and the north tangent tram including the Johanneskirchen tram. However, the construction costs, initially estimated at just under 531 million euros, have risen to a good 602 million euros according to the latest estimate. That makes 71 million euros more. According to the administration, the reason for this is, among other things, the increased construction costs. Because some of the projects have to be rescheduled, some of the routes will not go into operation until later than planned.
This Wednesday, the city council’s mobility committee decided to spend more money on the measures. Among other things, the Westtangente will cost almost 145 million euros – 34 million more than previously estimated. Around 209 million euros are expected to be due for the Ständlerstraße tram depot (plus 16 million), for the northern tangent 49 million (plus 14 million) and for the Munich north tram 70 million, i.e. ten million more.
“We do it because it’s important,” said Paul Bickelbacher, the Greens’ traffic expert. The faction of the CSU and Free Voters, on the other hand, rejected the first building program as they did a year ago, mainly because of the West Tangente. This had to be replanned because of the new specifications of the Radentscheid for wider cycle paths. The administration nevertheless assumes that it can go into operation by 2025, which the CSU strongly doubts. Their faction leader Manuel Pretzl called this information a “chimera”, i.e. a pipe dream. By the end of 2024, at most, the groundbreaking will have taken place, he estimated.
Because of the rescheduling, it was agreed last year to build a section of the route between Romanplatz and Waldfriedhof by the end of 2025. The southwestern section up to Aidenbachstraße is then scheduled to go into operation in 2027. In the area of Boschetsrieder Straße and Drygalskiallee, the track layout had to be changed to allow for wider cycle paths. The planning approval process for the modified plans for the Westtangente is currently underway.
However, there are delays with the Tram-Nordtangente. As previously communicated, it will not be able to go into operation in 2025, not least because the route on Leopoldstrasse has to be replanned again after a city council decision in July of this year so that the tram can run on the 700-metre-long section to Münchner Freiheit gets its own rails. Management now expects construction to start in 2027. She schedules the start of construction for the section through the English Garden for 2025. The third construction phase to Johanneskirchen should start as early as 2024.
MVG had bad news on Wednesday for all passengers on Tram 29, which runs between Willibaldplatz and Munich University of Applied Sciences: Because there is a lack of staff in the workshops due to illness and a general shortage of skilled workers, operations will initially be canceled until the end of February.