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Construction site for the second main route in Munich: The new sum includes a risk buffer
Photo: Wolfgang Maria Weber / IMAGO
With many major projects it is like this: a price is calculated, but the actual costs far exceed it.
This is now also the case with a new railway project in Munich.
For the second main line of the S-Bahn through downtown Munich, Deutsche Bahn is now calculating costs of around seven billion euros and a construction period up to 2035. This was announced by Bahn boss Richard Lutz in Munich.
The total already includes a risk buffer of 1.5 billion euros for further price increases.
Originally, costs of 3.85 billion were promised for the construction.
It is one of the largest infrastructure projects in Germany.
Lutz cited the drastically increased construction and material costs, project expansions and a significantly increased risk buffer as reasons for the increase in construction costs.
However, there are still further uncertainties due to the pending approval process, said Lutz.
Bavaria is sticking to the project
The Bavarian state capital is eagerly awaiting the second main route as the core of an overall concept for rail traffic in the region, because the previous network is overloaded and often unreliable.
Despite the massive increase in costs, the Bavarian state government is sticking to the construction of the second main line in Munich.
"We stand by the second regular route," said Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU).
It is of central importance for the future of Bavaria.
It is not only important for the greater Munich area, the rail network also extends to Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria and the Allgäu.
With a view to the cost sharing between the federal and state governments, Söder said it was now clear that the federal government would continue to bear 60 percent of the costs, “including the additional costs”.
Bavaria's Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter put the cost share for Bavaria "as of now" at 3.7 billion euros.
The Bavarian state government apparently knew about the financial and timing problems early on.
This was reported by the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" ("SZ") and "tz".
According to "SZ", a group of experts hired by the Ministry of Transport had already submitted their report on November 11, 2021, according to which the S-Bahn route would not be finished until 2037.
That would be nine years later than originally planned and two years more than Deutsche Bahn boss Lutz now estimated.
According to the information, the state government was also aware of a significant increase in costs, with an estimate of 7.2 billion euros.
The number corresponds to the cost increase that has now been published.
Read more about this here.
ani/dpa
