Wendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway


Wendlingen-Ulm high-speed line is a proposed high-speed railway line crossing the Swabian Alb with speeds of up to 250 km/h and will run in many sections parallel to the A 8. In the east the line will connect with the Neu-Ulm station opened on 18 March 2007, in the west to the Stuttgart 21 project.
As a section of the Stuttgart–Augsburg new and upgraded line, the Wendlingen-Ulm project is also a component of the Magistrale for Europe from Paris to Budapest, which is supported by the European Union as part of its Trans-European Networks. The European Union is providing up to 50 per cent of the planning phase of the project and is expected to fund ten per cent of its construction costs.

Project

Once opened, the travel time for high-speed traffic between Stuttgart and Ulm will be only 28 minutes rather than the current 54 minutes, if a stop at Stuttgart Airport is omitted. This is part of Deutsche Bahn's Netz 21 concept, which envisages a reduction of the travel time between Frankfurt and Munich from over three and a half today to two and a half hours in the future. However, this timing can only be achieved with a by-pass of Mannheim on the proposed Rhine/Main–Rhine/Neckar high-speed rail line, which would allow the travel time between Frankfurt and Stuttgart to be reduced to one hour. Deutsche Bahn has shelved the proposed bypass because of opposition to it in Mannheim.
27.1 km of the 58 km new line run in seven twin-tube tunnels. The estimated construction cost of € 2 billion, is affected by the difficult geology that the tunnels will run through.

Sections

The project is divided into seven planning sections:
In May 2005 it was decided to commence construction. Under the plans of DB ProjektBau, if construction had commenced in autumn 2005, it would have been ready to open in 2013. However, as a result of Federal Budget cuts commencement of construction has been delayed. On July 19, 2007, it was announced by the Federal Government, the State of Baden-Württemberg and DB that the project had been officially approved. € 2.0 billion will be invested in the Wendlingen-Ulm high-speed line, along with € 2.8 billion in Stuttgart 21. Baden-Württemberg agreed to provide funds of € 950 million for the Wendlingen-Ulm line, but the Federal Government will not provide funding for it before 2016.
Preparatory construction work for the new line began in the autumn of 2010. The ground-breaking ceremony was held on 7 May 2012. Work has commenced on most sections. All structures on the line will be completed by 2018. As of April 2020, the line is expected to open in December 2022, before Stuttgart 21, which is expected to open in December 2025.