A dozen years of construction, costs around four billion euros: With the new line, the railway is opening a new chapter for the connection between Ulm and Stuttgart. Other things are also set to change – and many of them only in a few years.
Wendlingen (dpa / lsw) - Only an expensive gain in time or a decisive step forward? Travelers between Stuttgart and Munich save a quarter of an hour thanks to the new Wendlingen-Ulm line, over which trains will officially run for the first time this Sunday. Aside from the costs of almost four billion euros, there are many hopes associated with the project. One or the other will also change in the timetable. The new line will be released for the timetable change on Sunday. It is to be officially opened on Friday morning in the presence of Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann.
"With the new Wendlingen-Ulm high-speed line, completely new connections will be possible," advertises Bahn Infrastructure Board Member Berthold Huber. "The travel time reductions go well beyond Stuttgart and Ulm." The route is also a prerequisite for the half-hourly service to major German cities.
The federal government's rail commissioner, Michael Theurer, speaks of a "revolution in travel time" and an engineering masterpiece. "The state is thus even more closely integrated into the main route for Europe from Paris via Stuttgart and Vienna to Bratislava," said the State Secretary.
And Ulm's Lord Mayor Gunter Czisch is convinced: "The new line has a similar importance as the construction of the railway in general." It will make Ulm the winner in the competition between cities and regions - "if we do it well," he told the "Südwestpresse".
While the 60-kilometer new line is finished, Stuttgart 21 is a long time coming. Therefore, the construction between Wendlingen and Ulm can only show its advantages from 2025 with the planned completion of the new Stuttgart main station, according to the railway and state. Even then, many parts of the project will only be on paper and not implemented.
Among other things, those traveling by train between Tübingen, Reutlingen and Ulm will benefit from the new rail system. Here, the travel time over the new line is reduced by up to 40 minutes. In future, regional trains will also run hourly between Ulm and Wendlingen at speeds of 200 km/h. An ICE will also run once an hour in both directions on the new line. According to Bahn, with it there is an improved daily offer between Stuttgart and Munich by around 20 to 90 trips.
The fly in the ointment of the so-called preliminary operation: the route only covers part of the planned route between Stuttgart and Ulm. Depending on the direction of travel, the brakes are applied before or after Wendlingen. Because of the high route loads between Wendlingen, Plochingen and Stuttgart, the regional trains cannot be routed directly to Stuttgart, according to Bahn. In Wendlingen it means "change trains" for travelers in regional traffic - they have to continue with the Neckar-Alb-Bahn. In addition to the new route, long-distance traffic continues to run on the existing route via Geislingen and Göppingen through the Filstal.
With the start of the new route, which partly runs parallel to the Autobahn 8, the travel time in regional traffic between Ulm and Stuttgart will initially be reduced by four to seven minutes. ICE trains will then take around 15 minutes less on this route. For the first time, the new regional stop Merklingen will also be served. If the Stuttgart underground station with its connections goes into operation in 2025, the journey time between Stuttgart and Ulm should be around half an hour shorter.
In addition to the new line, the Stuttgart-Ulm railway project also includes the underground station in downtown Stuttgart, including an underground connection to the airport. The project will cost more than 9 billion euros. In the financing agreement in 2009, 4.5 billion euros were set. In 1995, the railways, the federal government, the state and the city had estimated the costs at around 2.6 billion euros. The reasons given for the increases include increased construction costs, miscalculations, conditions from permits and changes in technical regulations.
