Dispute over the Gäubahn: conservationists are taking action against railway plans

Created: 2022-06-21Updated: 2022-06-21, 12:18 p.m

A train runs in Bondorf near Herrenberg on the Gäubahn route in Baden-Württemberg.

© Christian Johner/dpa

The future of the railway line between Lake Constance and Stuttgart has been a subject of debate for many years.

Now the dispute over the preservation of the so-called Gäubahn to Stuttgart's main station is becoming more heated.

Stuttgart – In the dispute over the future of the Gäubahn route from Lake Constance to Stuttgart, the Baden-Württemberg State Nature Conservation Association (LNV) wants to gain time and involves the Federal Railway Authority (Eba).

In an application, the association argues that the planned interruption of the railway line from Zurich to Stuttgart violates the railway's operating obligation.

The aim of the urgent application is to prohibit Deutsche Bahn from cutting the route, the LNV announced on Tuesday.

In addition, the Bonn authority must order that "no measures are taken that make the use of the railway line more difficult or impossible".

A railway spokesman did not comment on the request from the LNV.

The SWR had first reported on the step taken by nature conservationists.

During the construction of the underground station in Stuttgart as part of the multi-billion dollar "Stuttgart 21" construction project, Deutsche Bahn is planning to have the trains from Zurich and Singen end in Stuttgart-Vaihingen from 2025 until the connection to the new main station is complete.

Later, the Gäubahn trains are to run via a new tunnel from Böblingen to the airport and then back to the main station.

Until then, and for many years to come, passengers in long-distance and regional transport would have to switch to S-Bahn, buses and light rail to get to the main station.

The association warned that it was by no means just about the local political consequences of the project.

"But this is about nationwide effects on the environmentally friendly and resource-saving means of transport," said LNV chairman Gerhard Bronner.

"Stuttgart train station is ultimately embedded in a national and international rail network, and the Gäubahn is part of it." It is foreseeable that there will be no through trains to and from Stuttgart main station on the rail connection to Switzerland and Italy for about ten years .

However, the previous approvals provided for the Gäubahn to be completed almost at the same time via the airport.

From the point of view of the LNV, the umbrella organization of 36 nature and environmental protection associations in Baden-Württemberg, a so-called railway closure procedure is necessary.

From the point of view of the LNV, this would leave the remaining plans for the "Stuttgart 21" construction project unaffected.

The Gäubahn can temporarily be brought up to the new Stuttgart main station via the Panoramabahn until the Pfaffensteig tunnel between Stuttgart Airport and Böblingen connects the Gäubahn.

Most recently, a new legal opinion commissioned by the LNV, the environmental organization BUND and the Pro Bahn passenger association torpedoed the plans of the railway.

In it, the Passau lawyer Urs Kramer formulates that the procedure in the so-called plan approval decision - i.e. in the approval - is no longer tenable.

In the current building permit for “Stuttgart 21”, Deutsche Bahn does not have the green light to detach the Gäubahn from Stuttgart Central Station for years.

You have to apply for that first.

In his report, Kramer also questions whether the city of Stuttgart is allowed to build on vacant plots of land on which trains have been running so far because of the obligation to operate.

Without a decommissioning procedure, the state capital cannot freely dispose of the area that belongs to it and has already been planned for a long time.

On Wednesday, the railway could face further adversity: More than half a dozen cities in the affected regions fear for their connection to the airport and to Stuttgart.

They have also commissioned an expert opinion to examine the legal situation.

The results are to be presented on Wednesday (10 a.m.) by the cities of Singen, Rottweil, Tuttlingen, Villingen-Schwenningen, Horb, Herrenberg and Böblingen.

dpa