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Bringing the region closer together
Being a metropolitan region is both a challenge and an obligation: people must be able to get from A to B quickly and without disruption, and central hubs such as the airport, railway station and trade fair centre must be quickly and easily accessible. Stuttgart 21 plays an important role here. However, people in Stuttgart and the region can not only look forward to a fast direct connection to the Filder region, many faster direct connections are also crucial for the region, for example to get from Ludwigsburg to Esslingen or from Herrenberg to Waiblingen. The region is moving closer together - and public transport is getting even better.
Verband Region Stuttgart and Stuttgart 21
Verband Region Stuttgart invests in the parts of the Stuttgart 21 project that help to improve local transport in the region. These include plans to have separate commuter train routes for Bad Cannstatt and the main station (Hauptbahnhof), the new commuter rail station at Mittnachtstraße, routing the regional trains via the airport, expanding the airport into a mobility hub and the Wendlinger Kurve sub-project. Verband Region Stuttgart is contributing a share of EUR 100 million for those measures. The regional contribution is capped and set out in the financing agreement for Stuttgart 21.
As with many other major projects, completion of the Stuttgart 21 project has been delayed due to problems during realisation. As a project stakeholder, the Verband Region Stuttgart has formulated the following key demands for the completion and commissioning phase:
- The railway must provide sufficient tracks in good time so that the converted S-Bahn vehicles with ETCS can be tested in real operation. This is a basic prerequisite for smooth commissioning.
- The commissioning will once again result in extensive line closures: In order to ensure the mobility of passengers in the centre of the Stuttgart region, the Verband Region Stuttgart is demanding extensive personnel and financial support from DB InfraGo and DB Projekt Stuttgart-Ulm GmbH (PSU). This is the only way to ensure a reasonable replacement service, as was the case during the long closure between Waiblingen and Stuttgart in 2023.
New developments
In order to implement the Deutschlandtakt concept to synchronise Germany’s trains, there are also plans for large-scale expansion of the Stuttgart to Singen route. At the core of this plan is the Pfaffensteig tunnel between Böblingen and the airport. This tunnel will replace current plans as part of Stuttgart 21 for train links in the direction of Böblingen. The tunnel will allow for shorter journey times and will contribute significantly to ensuring that commuter trains between Vaihingen and the airport can continue to use dedicated tracks. Once the tunnel has been completed, this will make the hub at the airport much more attractive than the original plan for travellers coming from the south in particular.
Stuttgart 21 is a complex project. In order to introduce the project and its impact to the general public, all of the funding partners for the project have invested in an exhibition building called InfoTurm Stuttgart or ‘ITS’ for short on Platform 16 at Stuttgart’s main station (Hauptbahnhof). Over three floors and a viewing platform, the exhibition provides information about the Stuttgart-Ulm rail project as well as related future developments. Using numerous digital exhibits in conjunction with large-scale graphics, augmented reality and immersive 3D exhibits, the ITS team invites visitors to get to know Stuttgart 21 better.
