The city council has set another course for the construction of the future U9 subway line. On Wednesday, the Construction, Mobility and Economic Committee approved the contracts for the so-called temporary structure for a subway station under the main train station.
Deutsche Bahn is building this support structure on behalf of the city. It is part of the “integrated overall solution” at the main station, which includes the construction of an S-Bahn station for the second main route, the new reception building and a future underground station. The city has already decided to build the storage structure in 2022 in order not to block the possibility of a new station. Because if the second main line is completed in the 2030s, a subway station would no longer be able to be installed later. The Free State is also the contractual partner as the builder of the second main route.
The shell of the subway station is currently expected to cost around 662.5 million euros. This already includes 100 million euros for the preliminary planning of the entire U9 route. The total costs should be four billion euros. It is currently unclear whether the project will be funded. And it is already clear today that costs will continue to rise in the next few years.
The treasurer’s office had therefore already advised against the project because it expected a double-digit billion sum for the U9. Nevertheless, the city council is sticking with the project. Politicians and the Munich transport company describe the project as too important for the future of public transport in a growing city.
In 2040, the U9 could then relieve the already often overcrowded lines U3 and U6, which is why the route is also known as the “relief clasp”. The new route will run between Implerstrasse and Münchner Freiheit and will also provide additional access to the main train station and Theresienwiese.
The contents of the agreements are subject to confidentiality
The municipal utilities began examining the soil along the route last year. However, critics had previously complained that there was no contractual basis for the project. Now the planning, execution, financing and implementation of the retention measure are placed on a legal basis.
At the same time as the U9 agreements are concluded, the city’s investment cost subsidy for the second main route, which was released in October 2012, is also to be placed on a contractual basis. The city wants to use its share of the airport shareholder loan (113.7 million euros) for this purpose.
The decision and deliberations took place in a closed session. The contents of the agreements are subject to confidentiality because the agreements between Deutsche Bahn, the Free State of Bavaria and the state capital include, among other things, financing agreements on the basis of which tenders can be made in competition law procedures, the administration says.