As of: March 12, 2024, 3:58 p.m
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Winfried Hermann, Transport Minister of Baden-Württemberg, speaks at a press conference.
© Marijan Murat/dpa
Will the new Stuttgart underground station go into operation at the end of 2025 or will there be another delay?
Transport Minister Hermann is now proposing not to start until sufficient testing has been carried out.
Stuttgart - Baden-Württemberg's Transport Minister Winfried Hermann has suggested postponing the commissioning of the Stuttgart 21 rail project in favor of sufficient test runs.
Due to delays in the construction and installation of the digital infrastructure, there is no time to adequately test the rail junction.
But these tests are needed in advance for a stable start, said the Green politician on Tuesday in Stuttgart.
“It would be possible to start testing and practicing at the end of 2025 - and when it works, you make the change first and not before,” said Hermann, who had already warned several times about a “bumpy start”.
Commissioning is an extremely complex process, said Hermann.
There is a completely new infrastructure, new vehicles, new technology, new employees and a completely new timetable.
“If you already know that the timetables are so complex that they often get bumpy, it is almost impossible for everything to be successful right away,” said Hermann.
That’s why a sufficient test phase is needed.
A railway spokesman emphasized that the opening of the future Stuttgart main station is still scheduled for December 2025.
“It is the most complex commissioning of a new railway junction in recent decades with Germany-wide effects and is unprecedented in Europe,” said the spokesman.
The railway's primary goal is that passengers always have a stable timetable.
The decision on whether the station will be put into operation at the end of 2025 as planned must be made by June at the latest.
The reason for this is that the timetable is set concretely 18 months in advance.
In recent months, doubts have arisen as to whether the commissioning date can be met.
At the beginning of December, Deutsche Bahn, the developer of the project, reported problems with the installation of the digital infrastructure.
DB infrastructure director Berthold Huber said at the time that several milestones had not been reached.
The railway therefore integrated 60 of its own employees into the project in order to make up for lost time.
As part of Stuttgart 21, the Stuttgart region is to be expanded into Germany's first digitalized rail hub by the end of 2025.
Long-distance and regional trains as well as S-Bahn trains should then run with the digital train control system ETCS - and only with it.
Classic light signals are no longer installed in the Stuttgart railway junction.
From the point of view of Transport Minister Hermann, this technology is absolutely necessary.
The performance of the node and the expectations that people have of it can only be met with the digitization of the node, said Hermann.
“If he didn’t come, performance would deteriorate significantly.
Then the train station would be what we always feared: a bottleneck.”
The Stuttgart 21 project represents the complete reorganization of the Stuttgart rail hub, not just the reconstruction of the state capital's main train station.
New train stations, dozens of kilometers of railway tracks and tunnels, culverts and bridges are being built.
In addition to Stuttgart 21, the Stuttgart-Ulm rail project also includes the new construction of the already opened Wendlingen-Ulm line.
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The railway currently estimates the costs of the project at around eleven billion euros.
There have been several significant cost increases in recent years.
There is no clear regulation as to who has to pay the additional costs.
The railway has therefore sued the project partners - the state, the city of Stuttgart, the Stuttgart Region Association and Stuttgart Airport - for a share in the additional costs.
The proceedings are scheduled to continue before the Stuttgart Administrative Court in April.
dpa