New stumbling block
Further delay in the Brenner inlet route due to new elections
When expanding railway lines in Germany, it usually takes decades from the idea to the opening – and that is often due to politics, not the administration. A prime example in Bavaria.
The German planning for one of the most important European railway projects, which has been delayed for years, is encountering the next stumbling block: The Bundestag will most likely not decide on Deutsche Bahn’s route proposal for the German feeder line to the Brenner Base Tunnel in the Alps in the spring, but only after the early federal election . This is what SPD member of the Bundestag Christian Schreider says, who is responsible for the issue in the Transport Committee. The Bavarian Ministry of Transport in Munich also does not assume that the Bundestag will make a decision in the election period that is coming to an end.
“Very likely” only after the election
“It is very likely that the Bundestag will not deal with the DB route proposal until the next legislative period,” says Schreider. The 55-kilometer-long Austrian-Italian Brenner Base Tunnel is currently scheduled to open in 2032. In order to be able to use the tunnel’s full capacity one day, the German “inflow” through the Bavarian part of the Inn Valley must also be expanded, according to Deutsche Bahn.
Germany is far behind Austria and Italy when it comes to planning
In Italy and Austria, however, the planning for the respective access routes to the tunnel has been completed. On the German side, there is currently no binding planning for the 50-kilometer-long feeder route. The construction of the tunnel was decided in 2004, and in 2012 Germany and Austria agreed to jointly plan the northern access route.
The CSU was originally an enthusiastic supporter of the project, but given the strong resistance from citizens’ initiatives in the Inn Valley, route planning made only minimal progress during the term of office of the four CSU federal transport ministers from 2009 to 2021.
dpa
Source: Stern
