Not a single meter of the tunnel has yet been dug into the district of Munich, and yet District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU) recognizes a real breakthrough when it comes to extending the U 5 from Neuperlach-Süd to the Ludwig-Bölkow-Campus in Ottobrunn and Taufkirchen. “I’m counting on the success of the project,” said the district administrator on Wednesday. “Especially now that the funding law is green.”
According to a recent calculation, the project, the cost of which is estimated at at least half a billion euros, meets the necessary benefit-cost ratio for the first time, which is absolutely necessary in order to be able to be funded by the federal government. According to Göbel, Prime Minister Markus Söder and Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter (both CSU) have now signaled their full support for the implementation. The former transport minister, Unterhachinger state parliamentarian Kerstin Schreyer, announced the same thing on Tuesday.
However, time is of the essence, and the district of Munich must send a binding signal to Stadtwerke München by the end of March at the latest: that it will make massive financial advance payments and build the so-called holding structure under the planned new subway depot at Neuperlach-Süd station, the required for the expansion of the U 5 and the planned double-track expansion of the S7. The cost of this structure, which is intended to free up space for the extensions, is estimated at more than 20 million euros. The county will get most of the costs back when the subway is built in a few years.
District Administrator Göbel is in negotiations with the public utility company about the subway depot
Göbel told the SZ on Wednesday that he was currently in negotiations with the Munich public utility company that they would “untie up the depot package again” in order to be able to quickly initiate the necessary planning for the holding structure. “It is particularly important that the dual track system of the S-Bahn is taken into account. And it will.”
Because of the tight time window, Ottobrunn’s mayor Thomas Loderer (CSU) sounded the alarm this week and warned that the project could fail if the depot were to be built without precautionary measures. “That would be a catastrophe for decades to come,” said Loderer. In addition, the news that the Free State was outsourcing parts of the Faculty of Aerospace to Munich Airport due to the lack of space in Ottobrunn and Taufkirchen caused uncertainty. The impression was that the location in the southeastern district could be weakened or even abandoned – this would have endangered the subway extension project.
“But we have to rely on the fact that the university will be built up to its full size at the Taufkirchen/Ottobrunn site,” said Göbel. This is precisely what the passenger potential is based on, which would be needed to maintain the benefit-cost ratio that was achieved. According to Göbel, Prime Minister Markus Söder has declared that he will stick to the “entire university location”. Florian Schardt, spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group in the district council, was also relieved on Wednesday: the Free State had finally sent out the signal that had been expected for months.