The realization of one of the most ambitious transport projects in the region is getting closer.

Not far from the Frankfurt Stadion train station, construction of the Regionaltangente West is to begin this year, which will one day lead from the Taunus in the north via Frankfurt Airport to the Offenbach district in the south.

Horst Amann, the managing director of the RTW planning company, even harbors the hope that the groundbreaking ceremony will be possible in the first quarter.

There are only two or three unanswered questions from the authorities involved, he says, then the planning approval decision that creates the building permit can be expected.

Manfred Koehler

Head of department of the Rhein-Main editorial team of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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In six years, Stadtbahn trains are to run from Bad Homburg via Oberursel, Eschborn and Frankfurt-Höchst to the airport and from there to Neu-Isenburg and Dreieich.

The trains, technically a hybrid between the railways and trams, will make travel to the airport much easier for residents of the connected towns.

For the almost 50-kilometer route, around half of the existing railway lines will be used and new rails will be laid, partly in the middle of the street space.

The term "Tangent" refers to the fact that the new connection does not lead to Frankfurt's main station like the multitude of S-Bahn lines, but only touches the most important city in the region on the edge, bypassing the main station to the west.

Start of work on the Frankfurt forest station

The planners are currently focusing on the "South 1" section of the route, which is 16 kilometers long and stretches from Kelsterbach to Dreieich

(see map)

. It includes six breakpoints. The light rail will run on railway lines here, but these will be expanded. An additional track will be laid north of Neu-Isenburg station to the west of the existing route, south of this station then on the eastern side, which is why an underpass will be built at the station level, on which trains will change from one side to the other. The pivoting is necessary because that is where the short route to the center of Neu-Isenburg branches off in an easterly direction.

However, the construction work is not to begin in Neu-Isenburg, but at the station near the Frankfurt Waldstadion. An arched bridge is being built there, also as a new crossing option. Amann already has a fixed date in his calendar for this first major project as part of the Regionaltangente West: On August 23 next year, the bridge that has been built alongside the railway line is to be pushed into its final place. The dense train traffic is interrupted for this – Deutsche Bahn likes to schedule such interventions in the timetable in the long term.

The preparatory work for the Regionaltangente West has not progressed so far everywhere as between Kelsterbach and Dreieich.

The section through Frankfurt-Höchst is particularly demanding.

Nevertheless, Amann is optimistic that the first light rail vehicles will run on the entire route in 2028.

Should the "South 1" part be completed more than a year before the other sections, partial operation would only be possible there.

Such a provisional would not be worthwhile for a shorter period of time, as the managing director says.