Stuttgart 21: Disaster 📉 Massive Cost Overruns! 🔥

World News

The opening of Stuttgart 21, the ambitious new underground train station beneath Stuttgart’s Hauptbahnhof, is facing another significant delay. Deutsche Bahn’s recently appointed CEO, Evelyn Palla, has informed the supervisory board that the station won’t be operational by its originally planned date of 2026, and no new target date has yet been announced. The core issue lies with the station’s digital signalling system, a complex technology supplied by Hitachi and designed to automatically guide trains. Securing approval for this system has proven problematic, stalling overall progress. The Stuttgart 21 project is a key component of the larger Stuttgart–Ulm railway project, which encompasses a complete redesign of the Stuttgart station and the creation of a faster, high-speed rail line connecting Stuttgart to Ulm. Successfully completed, this line would dramatically reduce the journey time between the two cities – nearly in half – benefiting travelers on routes spanning from Mannheim to Munich, and extending as far as Paris to Bratislava. The project, initially presented in 1994, began construction in 2010, but has been repeatedly plagued by delays and escalating costs. Originally estimated at €2.5 billion, the price tag has now ballooned to an estimated €11 billion, a figure borne by Deutsche Bahn and governments at all levels – federal, state, and city – alongside the nearby airport. In addition to these challenges, construction has already caused damage to surrounding buildings and roads, and the project has been met with considerable public opposition, including violent protests that resulted in injuries.