As of: March 13, 2024, 10:51 a.m
By: Mike Schier
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The photomontage shows what it might look like if a tram drove through the English Garden.
© MVG, Welte
A big bang in transport policy: After years of debate, the state government is stopping plans for a tram through the English Garden.
This emerges from a letter from State Chancellor Florian Herrmann to Mayor Dieter Reiter.
Munich - The cabinet of Markus Söder (CSU) is withdrawing its consent to the project, according to the CSU politician's letter, which is available to our newspaper.
The state government disapproves of the city council's resolutions from December.
As the owner of the English Garden, the Free State has supported the city constructively in all planning in recent years, emphasizes Herrmann.
In September 2017, the cabinet approved the project, but made its final decision dependent on the state capital's specific plans.
And they are not to the taste of the state government, which is why “the business basis is no longer applicable”.
The English Garden tram is over: the state government says the new route is 35 percent wider
Herrmann goes into detail with his criticism: The tram line cannot be realized “without massive interventions that are not compatible with the monument.”
“The basis for the business was that the plans did not extend beyond the width of Busstrasse in order not to unnecessarily increase the loss of monument substance in the English Garden,” he writes.
Instead, they are now around 35 percent wider across the board.
This leads to a soil sealing of around 3,500 square meters.
A monument-compatible building is therefore not possible; instead, one must expect “significant resistance” from the population.
Herrmann also raises safety concerns: There is an increased risk potential for citizens who cross the railway line on foot or by bicycle.
“However, protective measures such as bars and circulation barriers would in turn involve even greater interference and disruption.”
Tram Nordtangente: “State government rejects plans for a tram through the English Garden”
Conclusion: “In view of the outstanding importance of the English Garden as a garden monument for the city of Munich and also for the Free State of Bavaria, the Bavarian State Government therefore rejects a tram through the English Garden.”
The city council and mayor Reiter (SPD) decided in December that the tram line should cross the English Garden over a length of 800 meters - with battery power, i.e. without overhead lines.
The route should run where buses already run.
These would then be replaced by the railway.
Construction was scheduled to begin at the end of 2025, with the first trip planned for the end of 2028.
Overall, the so-called northern tangent was intended to create a connection between Neuhausen and Bogenhausen that was around 13 kilometers long.
The CSU/FW faction in the Munich city council had already voted against the plans.
With similar arguments that the state government is now also putting forward - certainly not by chance.
In the city council, the CSU had referred to cheaper alternatives, such as electrically operated articulated buses.