Munich wants to accelerate the expansion of local public transport. Analogous to the school building program, the city council therefore decided on a “public transport building program” on Wednesday. A “task force” headed by Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) is to push ahead with the expansion measures. However, the committee will only make the decision at a cost of 530 million euros in the course of the budget decisions in the new year.
The construction program includes several projects: These include the Tram-Westtangente, the Tram-Nordtangente, the extension of the Tram 16/17 to the S-Bahn Johanneskirchen, the Tram Münchner Norden to develop the Bayernkaserne, the so-called Tram Y Nord, the Tram Wasserburger Landstraße, the Ramersdorf-Perlach tram, the new tram depot on Ständerstraße, a second subway depot in Neuperlach and the renovation of the Munich subway stations.
In addition, the city councils approved the routes for the tram west bypass and the tram Munich north after they had discussed the arguments for and against the projects, which had already been explained in detail in the mobility committee, for another two and a half hours in the general assembly. The CSU criticized the fact that the cycling decision now partially delayed the route, the Greens in return held against the CSU for having bitterly fought the project, which had been decided for the first time in 1991. CSU parliamentary group leader Manuel Pretzl, in turn, accused the Greens of having had 24 years to build the route at the time of the red-green coalition – an exchange of blows that continued on Twitter between Pretzl and the Green parliamentary group leader Florian Roth .
In the case of the tram in the north of the city, the route and the turning loop at the Kieferngarten underground station were discussed again. The ÖDP failed with an amendment supported by the CSU to change the planning in such a way that the tracks in Heidemannstrasse should not run in the middle of the street, but on the side south of the carriageway in order to preserve the trees there. However, the power line there stands in the way of this lateral position. The turning system, according to the ÖDP, should be built in Fröttmaning and not at the Kieferngarten, the route should run east instead of west of the subway line.
Ingo Wortmann, managing director of the Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG), explained why the route was planned this way. If it ran east of the subway, it would no longer be eligible. The planned location of the turning loop is also necessary because of the short transfer routes. However, he did not rule out a later extension of the tram to Fröttmaning, which the MVG still considers uneconomical today.