Increasingly integrated region
The Stuttgart – Ulm rail project is a project with synergy potential to which there is no alternative: an effective combination of long-distance and regional transport combined with excellent opportunities for urban and regional development. Accordingly, Verband Region Stuttgart (the Greater Stuttgart Association) has been a partner of this project right from the start.
The project will yield great benefits for the Greater Stuttgart Region especially in the regional transport sector. Shorter journey times, better accessibility and more convenient connections: all aspects which benefit both passengers and business enterprises in the Greater Stuttgart Region.
New prospects for the rapid transit system
Verband Region Stuttgart will contribute EUR 100 million to the project, or to be more precise to the budget for regional rail transport, because Stuttgart 21 will open up new prospects for the rapid transit system, the “S-Bahn”, which is the responsibility of Verband Region Stuttgart. No fewer than 330,000 people use S-Bahn trains every day. The new S-Bahn station Mittnachtstrasse between the Nordbahnhof district and the new Rosenstein district, will provide transport connections for the new district in the city. It will also provide a convenient transfer for passengers travelling from Feuerbach towards Bad Cannstatt, who will no longer have to make a detour via Stuttgart Main Station.
Moreover, the Stuttgart – Ulm rail project provides further future options that will continue after the project itself has been completed. One day, the S-Bahn could run directly from Bad Cannstatt to Nordbahnhof. Extension possibilities will be secured, at least as a future option for maintaining the efficiency of the S-Bahn network. One long-term option will arise, for example, when long-distance traffic no longer travels through the Neckar and Fils valleys, but runs mainly on the new high-speed line parallel to the A 8 motorway to Ulm. A new rail connection from Sindelfingen/Böblingen would then be conceivable via Filder station, the new-build line and the planned S-Bahn line to Kirchheim/Teck, Plochingen or Nürtingen. This would provide a tangential connection between the primary employment area in the south-west of the region and the centres in the south-east.
Economic strength of the Stuttgart region
By now, you might be saying to yourself, the advantages are obvious. But do we really have to spend EUR 4.8 billion on the Stuttgart – Ulm rail project? Sums that are likely to make many people dizzy. However, the project has to be seen in relation to the economic strength of the Stuttgart region: the Stuttgart region has an annual gross value added of almost EUR 100 billion. During the eight-year construction period, the Stuttgart region will therefore earn approx. EUR 800 billion – which means that the costs of the project amount to just 0.6 per cent. And the burden of these investments will be spread across many strong shoulders: the Federal Republic of Germany, Deutsche Bahn, the Federal Land of Baden-Württemberg, the city of Stuttgart and the Greater Stuttgart Region.
[ www.region-stuttgart.org ]