When Deutsche Bahn (DB) speaks of “adjusted scheduling,” experience has shown that this means: if things take longer.
This Tuesday, the DB announced that it will not finish converting the Laimer train station for the second S-Bahn main line until 2028 instead of 2026. That may be a smaller delay than the entire main line project, which will be completed eight to ten years later . Nevertheless, the delay also affects another important transport project in the city: the tram west tangent.
The problem: The DB is not only converting its train station, but also, on behalf of the city, the so-called environmental composite tube, an underpass under the tracks through which the western bypass will later run. The railway says the work is on schedule. But she needed the tube as a logistics area and could only hand it over to the city two years later.
And that means that the tram route in its entirety will also be completed later, because the section between Fürstenrieder Straße and Romanplatz can only be built if the tube can also be expanded. The planned commissioning of this section in 2026 will now probably be postponed by two years.
“This delay is very annoying,” says Andreas Barth, Munich spokesman for the Pro Bahn passenger association. He can think of various consequences – from compensation for passengers to any kind of acceleration measures, to the Free State’s approval of the tram north tangent through the English Garden, as a concession, so to speak. Barth sees the Free State as the developer of the second main line as having a duty here.
The Munich transport company expected delays
Nikolaus Gradl, transport policy spokesman for the SPD/Volt faction in the city council, criticizes the “much too late communication and the catastrophic construction site delays by Deutsche Bahn”. They are “a slap in the face” to Munich commuters. “We urgently need better planning and performance from the Free State and Deutsche Bahn in order to accelerate the desired expansion of local transport in Munich.”
When asked, the Munich Transport Company (MVG) explained that it was in technical discussions with the DB in order to keep the delay as short as possible. Specifically, by handing over in two parts (northern part of the environmental composite tube earlier than the southern one), the interior work in the northern part should take place earlier than in the southern part in order to be able to put it into operation as quickly as possible. According to its own statements, MVG had expected possible delays with the environmental composite pipe. The section south of Fürstenrieder Straße will now be given priority.
Incidentally, the first work on the western bypass has already begun: Preparatory measures are currently underway, specifically the laying of gas and water pipes, in Wotanstrasse.