Actually, things are moving forward with Stuttgart 21. Last week, the project company of the railway announced that the next milestone had been reached.

For the future underground Stuttgart main station, which is scheduled for completion in 2025, the platforms have now been concreted and all four 420-metre-long platforms can be walked on;

around 15,000 cubic meters of concrete were used.

This interim news, which is good for the construction management, now clouds another realization that has accompanied the mega-project since its start: the cost increases seem to want to go on forever.

Thiemo Heeg

Editor in Business.

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The major infrastructure project is likely to be around one billion euros more expensive than previously planned, as announced on Friday.

According to information from the FAZ, the relocation of the train station in the state capital of Baden-Württemberg underground and the complex construction of the connections cost a total of almost 9.2 billion euros.

So far, it was assumed that 8.2 billion euros.

Deutsche Bahn (DB) does not want to comment on these figures.

The Court of Auditors has already expressed concerns

In Berlin it can be heard that the sharp rise in construction prices is to blame for the renewed plan revision.

After all, it is not just about cost increases related to the actual award of the contract.

Rather, a buffer was provided.

It is intended to prevent builders from having to come up with new figures again in a short space of time.

However, the current increase in costs did not come as a complete surprise.

Already in 2019 there were fears that the budgeted money would not be enough.

At that time, the Federal Audit Office warned in a report for the Audit Committee of the Bundestag of further cost increases, consequences for the federal budget and risks for the entire railway infrastructure.

Such concerns have almost always been confirmed so far.

The highly controversial infrastructure project, launched in 1994 and under construction since 2010, was originally supposed to cost 2.6 billion euros, then more than 4 billion euros.

Most recently, the forecasts were increased to 8.2 billion euros.

According to information from the news magazine “Der Spiegel”, the most recent increase in prices is based on a report by the auditing and consulting company Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, which is to be presented to the audit committee of the DB Supervisory Board in the coming weeks.

This comes more than inconveniently in a political environment that is already characterized by disputes about financing.

Most recently, in January, Baden-Württemberg's Transport Minister Winfried Hermann (Greens) reiterated his demand that the federal government should contribute to the additional costs of Stuttgart 21.