A second S-Bahn trunk line is to be built in Munich. The general public has so far taken little notice of the construction. According to estimates, the route could be more expensive than Stuttgart 21 or BER.
In Munich, almost unnoticed by the general public, a billion-dollar disaster is threatening the construction of a second main S-Bahn line under the city center. The tunnel is expected to cost 8.5 billion euros. Other estimates, also from CSU members of the state parliament, are now assuming up to 14 billion euros.
This tunnel would be more expensive than Stuttgart 21. The new, underground train station in the Baden-Württemberg state capital is now estimated at almost ten billion euros, while the headline-grabbing Berlin-Brandenburg Airport will probably cost around seven billion.
The Munich S-Bahn trunk line could thus overshadow both large buildings in terms of costs. The fact that this project has been under the radar for a long time nationwide is probably due to the fact that no ICE trains will run here and no intercontinental planes will land.
cost explosion and construction time extension
At the end of the last decade, construction costs were still estimated at 3.8 billion euros and completion by 2028. Taxpayers will now have to dig at least five billion euros deeper into their pockets and the first train will probably not leave before 2037.
Rescheduling, general cost increases and a cost estimate that was set too low at the beginning are said to be responsible for the disaster. A committee of inquiry in the Bavarian state parliament is to clarify whether this is really the case and why the increased costs have been kept secret from the public for years.
Statement increases pressure on the State Chancellery and the railways
In this committee, the former Bavarian Minister of Transport, Kerstin Schreyer, CSU, accuses the railway of being blocked. According to Schreyer, the State Chancellery, headed by Prime Minister Markus Söder, promised a round table, but it did not take place for a long time.
When she took up her ministerial office in February 2020, it quickly became clear that things were not going well with the second main route, says Schreyer as a witness in the committee of inquiry. According to her, what was missing above all: reliable figures from Deutsche Bahn on the increased costs and the delayed schedule.
Bavaria’s ex-transport minister Kerstin Schreyer had to testify as a witness in the investigative committee on the second Munich S-Bahn trunk line.
In the fall of 2020, information even flowed at the working level. The content: a delay in the project from 2028 to 2033 and an increase in costs from 3.8 to five billion euros. Shortly thereafter, on the sidelines of a joint appointment in Nuremberg, she spoke to Ronald Pofalla, a member of the Deutsche Bahn board at the time. He declared the figures to be “irrelevant”.
top talk sought
Schreyer looked for other people to talk to, including her party colleague and then Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer. She wants to have written and called him. However, Scheuer had testified before the committee that he did not remember a phone call with her and that he had not received a letter to that effect.
The Greens in the state parliament promptly filed criminal charges against Scheuer on suspicion of unsworn false statements. Next week, the current Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter, the former Prime Minister Horst Seehofer and the current one, Markus Söder, are to testify before the committee of inquiry.
Construction project with many opponents
The construction of the second trunk line, which is up to 40 meters deep, has been controversial for decades: the tunnel runs parallel to the existing trunk line and a subway line. In contrast, there is no S-Bahn ring in Munich. If you come from the west and want to go north, you have to take the S-Bahn through the city center. This will not change with the new main route either.