ABS38: New project manager wants to set up dialogue forums

Created: 05/25/2022, 06:00

By: Timo Aichele

The new boss: Alexander Pawlik has already managed several railway projects, now the ABS 38. © Timo Aichele

Alexander Pawlik is the new overall leader of the ABS38 project.

He wants to intensify the exchange with the region with dialogue forums.

However, this will not change the multi-year delay in railway expansion.

Dorfen

– The new overall project manager of ABS 38 wants to use dialogue forums to intensify the exchange with the municipalities affected along the Munich-Mühldorf-Freilassing railway line.

"We want to start this this year," explains Alexander Pawlik, who has been responsible at DB Netz AG for the project with double-track expansion and electrification over 150 kilometers since the beginning of April.

In the dialogue forums, mayors – in non-public meetings – should be able to bring in the wishes of their citizens.

Pawlik sees the greatest impact on the planning sections Markt Schwaben-Ampfing and Tüßling-Freilassing.

For this reason, the first forums are to be set up in these areas.

"We want to fly the flag there," he said on Tuesday at the press conference in the ABS38 information center at Mühldorf station.

Information tours in neighboring municipalities are also planned from 2023.

"In some sections, we may have talked past each other.

I don't want to lose any more time there," Pawlik hints.

Coordination talks are currently underway.

For example, the responsible section head in Dorfen met with the city council just a few weeks ago.

In the next few months he first wants to get to know the mayors along the route.

It is important to "sit together over a coffee" and discuss ideas.

"I understand many of the demands of the communities," said the overall project manager.

But not everything can be financed - "we are subject to the grant law".

Time differences have been a major concern since it was announced at the end of March that the entire measure would be delayed by several years.

The ABS38 is one of the first projects that the federal government intends to complete in accordance with the "Preparatory Measures Act" (MGVG).

This entails a different sequence of process steps – and a delay of several years.

"We are a bit the exercise candidates," says the civil engineer about the dubious honor as a pioneer at the MGVG.

The mood is bad, especially among companies in the south-eastern Bavarian chemical triangle.

They complain about blatant delays in freight traffic, and there is great hope for a double-track railway line.

But that is not the only time problem with the project, for which there were first attempts in the 1980s.

A decree by Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer in 2021 meant that the planning for the Weidenbach level crossing in the community of Heldenstein, Mühldorf district, had to be set “to zero”, according to Pawlik.

Now DB Netz AG has to design a railway overpass there (we reported).

"It takes several years," says Pawlik.

Because of the ministerial decree, the federal government in Weidenbach will bear the additional costs.

Quite different in Dorfen: According to the Ministry of Transport, lowering the tracks for reasons of noise protection would cost 72 million euros more.

The federal government would not bear this increase in price.

"There is a clear statement from the ministry," Pawlik repeats the position that has been known since February.

The total financial volume of the ABS38 is 3.2 billion euros plus one billion for the Truderinger and Daglfinger curves.

After all, the overall project manager sees no potential for further delays at this point.

Electrification and double track of the entire 150 kilometers by 2030, his predecessor Klaus-Peter Zellmer had to move away from this target because of the MGVG.

The delay is several years, Pawlik now confirms.

"But we're not assuming a decade," he says.

So 2035?

"Or much faster," replies the 47-year-old from Fürstenfeldbruck.