When the new Stuttgart ICE train station is actually opened in autumn 2025, the construction work in the region will still be far from over.

The old track apron is to be built on with apartments, which cannot begin until the end of this decade.

In addition, the Stuttgart-Zürich route, which railway connoisseurs call the "Gäubahn" and ends with a panoramic section, has to be upgraded.

If this does not happen, the trains will not be able to run on this route in the so-called hourly Germany cycle.

To do this, the journey time on this route must be reduced by around 20 minutes.

In order to achieve this, the Pfaffensteig tunnel is now to be built between Böblingen and the ICE train station at the trade fair.

Ruediger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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The steering committee of the railway, city, state and region for controlling the Stuttgart 21 project decided last week, after a long dispute, to use the project funds to finance a connection piece for 270 million euros at the ICE train station at the exhibition center.

Nothing should stand in the way of the construction of the tunnel to relieve the S-Bahn line.

However, since the cost calculation dates from 2015, higher construction costs are to be expected.

If you add up the costs for the expansion of the railway line in Wendlingen, the subsequent digitization of the new main station, the construction of another additional tunnel in the Stuttgart district of Feuerbach and the Pfaffensteig tunnel, then the federal government is investing an additional 2.6 billion euros so that Stuttgart 21 becomes as powerful as is required in view of the growing number of passengers from 2030 onwards.

The project was planned in 1994 and after thirty years it is actually already obsolete.

"The infrastructure measures bring rail traffic up to date," said deputy CDU parliamentary group leader Steffen Bilger.

Delays in transfers

Due to the construction work for the Pfaffensteig tunnel, all passengers coming from Zurich, Singen or Horb who want to change trains in the new Stuttgart main station or travel to the city center must also change trains in Vaihingen;

this annoying makeshift could test the patience of passengers for at least six years.

The Stuttgart 21 project company (PSU) does not see this as a major problem because, according to a study, only 18 percent of passengers traveling on this route want to go downtown.

The Baden-Württemberg Transport Minister Winfried Herrmann (Greens) has been fighting for the preservation of the Gäubahn line for many years because he doubts the efficiency of the new station.

In his opinion, the new transport hub needs a "resilience route" if the twin-tube tunnels for the new ICE train station are closed.

This autumn, the new ICE route from Wendlingen to Ulm, which is 60 kilometers long and runs half through tunnels, is scheduled to go into operation.

In the new Stuttgart main station, the work is currently going according to plan, all the “chalice feet” for the new station roof have been concreted, and twenty of the 28 “chalice supports” that are to support the station roof have been concreted.

In March, the Deutsche Bahn supervisory board provided the project with an additional risk buffer of 600 million euros, so that the railway junction could now cost 9.8 billion euros.

In 1994, an initial calculation was 2.5 billion euros.