Construction site Stuttgart 21. Photo from June 12, 2026. The new through station is being built here.Image: www.imago-images.de
Deutsche Bahn is postponing the commissioning of the Stuttgart 21 rail project for five years. The new underground station should be put into operation at the end of 2031, said rail representatives in the German Bundestag’s Transport Committee, according to participants.
June 24, 2026, 10:24June 24, 2026, 10:24
In November, Deutsche Bahn canceled the partial opening of the new underground station in Stuttgart planned for the end of 2026, among other things due to problems with digitalization. Railway boss Evelyn Palla initially did not give a new date and announced a comprehensive review of the project.
The postponement to 2031 is now a result of these tests. The new date had already been reported by several media outlets in recent weeks.
Commissioning has been postponed many times
The project has been under construction since 2010. Commissioning has already been postponed several times, most recently to December 2026. When the financing agreement was concluded in 2009, it was assumed that it would open in 2019.
The Stuttgart 21 project not only stands for the construction of the new main station in the southern German city, but also for the complete reorganization of the Stuttgart rail hub. New train stations are being built – such as a new long-distance train station at the airport – and dozens of kilometers of railways and tunnels, culverts and bridges.
Railway nodes will also be completely digitalized
In addition to Stuttgart 21, the Stuttgart-Ulm rail project also includes the new construction of the Wendlingen-Ulm high-speed line, which opened in 2022. The heart of Stuttgart 21 is the new underground main station, which, in contrast to the previous terminus station, will be a through station.
As part of Stuttgart 21, the railway junction in Stuttgart will also be the first in Germany to be completely digitalized. Long-distance and regional trains as well as S-Bahn trains should then run with the digital train control system ETCS – and only with it. Classic light signals are no longer installed in the Stuttgart railway junction.
The costs for the project have also risen steeply over the years. A financing agreement from 2009 only regulates the distribution of costs up to a total of a good 4.5 billion euros. The railway recently put the costs at around 11.3 billion euros – but with the renewed postponement by five years, these are likely to increase significantly. According to a court ruling, the state-owned railway must bear the additional costs alone. (hkl/sda/awp/dpa)