Mr Ferlemann, on a scale from one to 100 - how important is the planned mainline tunnel in Frankfurt?

Ralf Euler

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung, responsible for the Rhein-Main section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

  • Follow I follow

    90.

    Important for Frankfurt and beyond?

    Important for all of Germany to drive the Germany clock and for Europe to drive the European clock.

    This means?

    This means that long-distance trains can travel unhindered across Europe.

    Not like before, where the Deutsche Bahn only serves part of the route, and then you have to change to the SNCF in France and to the SBB in Switzerland.

    You need through stations for a European act, and Frankfurt is a central hub there.

    With the tunnel, we are freeing the rail network in Germany from a chronic bottleneck.

    Only two years from the first idea for a Frankfurt railway tunnel to the presentation of the feasibility study on Monday - is this close timing decisive for the progress of this project over time?

    I pushed my pace right from the start and the engineers have now come up with an ingenious solution.

    This shows that if you challenge German engineering, you get a very good result.

    They expect the tunnel to go into operation in 2040, possibly a few years earlier.

    What will happen until then with the already temporarily overloaded Frankfurt Central Station?

    We are already working now and in the coming years in the entire area around Frankfurt on improving the rail infrastructure.

    The federal government will spend 1.5 billion euros on this over the next few years, regardless of the planned tunnel.

    The tunnel is certainly the core of the expansion of the rail infrastructure, but until it is available, we will not be idle and will soon create additional capacities above ground.

    What makes you confident that, unlike the Stuttgart 21 station project, there will be no vehement protests in Frankfurt?

    In Stuttgart, a railway project has been turned into a huge urban development project.

    The railway is only a means to an end there.

    It's different in Frankfurt: it's all about the railways.

    Regional and local traffic will continue to be handled via the previous station even after the tunnel has been built.

    We only go underground by long-distance train, so I see no reason for protest.

    Nevertheless, such a project is associated with enormous nuisances and disabilities for many people.

    Building without noise, without dust, without truck traffic is of course not possible.

    Sure there will be restrictions, but the station will remain in operation while the tunnel is being built.

    The disadvantages are limited.

    Will there be lawsuits?

    I do not expect it. The support from the municipalities and the associations - from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry to the Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation - is great. This is very rare in such large-scale projects. If there is criticism in Frankfurt, it will be more in the form: Do it faster because we are suffering from the situation as it is today.