How about getting on the tram in Bogenhausen and then going shopping in Unterföhring? Or: Taking the tram home from work in Munich to the neighboring community in the district? Such dreams have been haunting the minds of some local politicians in Unterföhring for a long time. The municipality has now decided to have a possible tram connection examined more closely.
Tram lines 16 and 17 currently have their last stop in St. Emmeram in Oberföhring. The station was inaugurated eleven years ago and connects the city center with Bogenhausen and Oberföhring in the northeast of the state capital. If the SPD parliamentary group in the Unterföhring municipal council has its way, school children should be able to use this tram line in the future to get to the high school in Unterföhring.
Whether such a further expansion makes sense should of course first be examined in detail. An initial demand forecast by the traffic planners Intraplan Consult, which has now been presented to the municipal council, has shown that there is currently only a limited need for such a connection. The rails would lead from Oberföhring across the city limits via Münchner Straße and Mitterfeldallee to Betastraße in the south-east of Unterföhring and thus to the school campus. According to the conclusion of the study, potential demand will drop significantly after Siedlerstraße. Although the connection to the school campus makes sense, it does not alone justify all-day service by a tram. For a sensible solution, the planners recommend, the tram would have to be continued to the Unterföhring S-Bahn station.
The majority of the city council agrees. In September, the district of Munich spoke out in favor of having only the shorter section from St. Emmeram to the intersection of Mitterfeldallee and Münchner Straße examined. However, the municipal council has now decided to extend the route: from St. Emmeram via Mitterfeldallee and Betastraße to the S-Bahn station. At the request of the SPD, the extent to which the planned Neues Mitterfeld residential area on the former Kiesa site can be directly connected is being examined. The investigation should include both the demand and the technical feasibility and funding opportunities for a continuation of the tram line.