DistantNews
Support us
🇩🇪 Germany /Energy & Infrastructure

Bavaria rail line to Austria finally set for expansion after decades of delays

From Süddeutsche Zeitung · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Germany’s rail operator plans to expand and electrify the route from Munich through Mühldorf to the Austrian border, a project delayed for decades.
  • Local residents, politicians and businesses have waited since 2000 for electric trains on the route, after an earlier government pledge.
  • Rail network chief Philipp Nagl says the line could be completed in the 2030s, while Parliament must assess its implications for the Brenner northern access route.

Passengers on the railway from Munich through Mühldorf to Freilassing are used to delays. But waiting 26 years for a train that was promised by 2000, with several more years apparently still ahead, may set a particularly unhappy record.

People in eastern Upper Bavaria have been waiting since 2000 for the first electric train to travel from Munich through Mühldorf to the Austrian border. In 1991, CSU politician Wolfgang Gröbl, then a state secretary in the Federal Transport Ministry, announced that the largely double-track route would be expanded and electrified by that deadline.

Since then, residents along the line, local politicians and businesses have repeatedly been put off. The project has remained a long-running source of frustration in the region.

Philipp Nagl, head of the rail network, now describes the route as “extremely important” and says it could be completed in the 2030s. Whether the project could make the controversial Brenner northern access route unnecessary is a decision for the Bundestag.

Extremely important

· Philipp NaglThe rail network chief’s assessment of the route’s significance.
About this summary

Originally published by Süddeutsche Zeitung in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog