The opening of Stuttgart’s new underground railway station, originally targeted for the end of 2026, is being postponed once again. Stuttgart’s mayor, Frank Nopper (CDU), said on Wednesday that Deutsche Bahn had delivered the “calamitous news of yet another delay” in bringing Stuttgart 21 into service. According to Baden-Württemberg’s Transport Minister Winfried Hermann (Greens), there is no new date.
“The renewed postponement of Stuttgart 21 for an indefinite period is a disastrous message for the region, the city, the state, and above all for passengers,” Hermann said. “The last bit of trust in the rail company” is being squandered with this announcement. “Only a month ago, the rail company confirmed the opening date for next year – even when we asked again,” Hermann added. “These commitments were obviously flimsy or false. We feel deceived.” Stuttgart 21, he said, is an “unbelievably complex and expensive megaproject” into which the rail company had been pushed politically.
Deutsche Bahn stated that its management board had already informed the supervisory board in September that “there continue to be schedule risks” associated with the commissioning plan for Stuttgart 21; the steering committee, which brings together funding partners of the new underground station, was similarly informed in October.
These schedule risks, the company continued, had now “materialized to an extent previously unforeseeable and are currently being evaluated with the supervisory board.” The company said it would not pre-empt that discussion. In the interest of “maximum transparency,” it would “immediately” communicate “any new developments.”
According to Der Spiegel, the rail operator’s new CEO, Evelyn Palla, in office since October, informed the supervisory board and project partners on Wednesday that the end-2026 opening would have to be postponed due to technical problems. Analyses carried out over the summer by DB Projekt Stuttgart–Ulm GmbH and the consulting firm PwC had shown significant risks to the planned opening date, the magazine reported. Following an additional review, Palla decided to pull the plug.
The report attributes the delay to technical problems with the so-called Digital Node Stuttgart, a pilot project aimed at digitizing railway control and safety technology in the Stuttgart region. There are reportedly issues with approval and certification of technology from Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, a key partner in the digitalization project.
Transport Minister Hermann said the rail company was struggling both with construction and digitalization, and that managing both at once was proving even more difficult. Planning for Stuttgart 21, which includes a new main station, additional stops, and several new lines around the Stuttgart area, dates back decades.
When construction began, the opening was targeted for the end of 2019. In July of this year, Deutsche Bahn announced that from December 2026, long-distance and parts of regional services would run through the new station. Some regional trains, however, were expected to continue using the old above-ground terminus until summer 2027.
Mayor Nopper and Minister Hermann are calling for an immediate special meeting of the steering committee. “We demand real transparency from the new CEO, Evelyn Palla. We do not want any new dates without substance,” Hermann said. Cem Özdemir, the Greens’ lead candidate for the upcoming state election in Baden-Württemberg, told the Funke Media Group newspapers that the latest delay “sounds like derision.”
After the hard-won compromise on a partial opening, he said, the project was now abandoning any opening date at all. Stuttgart 21 “is a bottomless pit,” he criticized.
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