Brenner base tunnel, Italy will open in 2032 but expert fears Germany will not open until 2050 and this could damage thrice countries economy and Co² emissions
https://www.ladige.it/territori/alto-adige-s%C3%BCdtirol/2024/10/08/tunnel-del-brennero-la-germania-ridiscute-la-tratta-d-accesso-e-i-tempi-si-allungano-1.3896928
by Sium4443
17 comments
The delays and political debates over the Brenner Tunnel access route are really putting a dent in rail freight progress. If they don’t get things sorted soon, it’ll be tough to meet any of those long-term goals. It’s a shame, especially with the potential environmental benefits of shifting more freight to rail.
Austrians see 2 different speeds on the sides of Inn valley, Italy is working fastly and has almost completed the last lot of digging of which will be world longest tunnel, Germany still doesnt know what to do in the Munich-Kufstein line and this may cause big lates other than CO2 emissions, currently 27% of brenner pass traffic is on rails, Austria and Italy planned to reach 40% by 2040 but this wouldn’t be possibile if Germany doesnt build their part.
The train line is necessary as it will link 3rd (Germany) and 4th (Italy) world’s biggest exporter which are the base of european economy
Bavarian NIMBYs fucking shit up for the rest of us again?
Italians worked with the passion but Germans over engineered it?
Dear Germany,
we have a lot of flaws and problems, but apparently some really good construction companies, so you can trust us on that one. Please let us shine for once and let’s have this tunnel together.
Kind regards,
Italy
> expert fears
*Everyone with half a brain cell expects
There’s no stronger pair of antonyms than “public construction in Germany” (especially in infrastructure) and “efficiency”
Same shit with the Dutch Betuwelijn, connecting the port of Rotterdam with the Ruhr. The dutch part’s been done for a decade and a half and there still isn’t a proper connection at the border.
[Here](https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/20/116/2011622.pdf) is the actual thing:
> Motion by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group
> Brenner northern approach in the district of Rosenheim – examine planning alternatives
> The Bundestag shall decide:
> I. The German Bundestag declares:
> The Brenner Base Tunnel is one of the most important transport projects in Europe. The northern access route between Munich and Innsbruck is an essential, but also spatially sensitive part of this European project of the future. It runs through the Upper Bavarian Inn Valley between Rosenheim and the state border at Kufstein. The affected communities, citizens’ initiatives, farmers and political and political representatives are calling for environmentally friendly solutions. The main focus here is on the planned Kirnstein junction between the municipalities of Flintsbach and Oberaudorf and the demand for an undercrossing of the Inn at Rosenheim. These are also the core demands of the city and district of Rosenheim in the ongoing planning process.
> Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG) intends to construct an above-ground junction in Kirnstein, between the municipalities of Flintsbach and Oberaudorf. The existing line in the Niederaudorf to Fischbach area is to be relocated for around 5 kilometres in the direction of the A93. The railway stations in Oberaudorf and Flintsbach are to remain at their current locations. These plans are highly controversial. The Inn Valley between Flintsbach and Oberaudorf is particularly narrow here, burdened with a motorway, double-track existing line and two pipelines. This section of the Inn Valley is rich in natural landscape and characterised by family farms, some of which have been in existence for centuries and over several generations. The link would directly affect 25 farmers, who would lose at least 50 and up to 90 per cent of their land. Land levelling is not possible in this narrow valley location.
> Whether this connection point is necessary has not yet been sufficiently clarified. Seven affected municipalities, the Rosenheim district council and political representatives are calling for a mining solution to be realised for a necessary connection point at Kirnstein and for the connection point to be relocated to the Wildbarren. The ‘Inntal2040 interest group’ presented a study on this back in 2023 (see: http://www.samerbergernachrichten.de/inntal-studie-zu-brenner-nordzulauf/ and the Federal Government’s response to Bundestag document 20/10518). According to this study, the realisation of an underground connection point is possible and can be approved.
> The key findings of the study are:
> – Legally, there is nothing to prevent an underground connection point. It is possible to deviate from the European directive on fire and disaster protection requirements for the construction and operation of railway tunnels if safety can be guaranteed by other means.
> – In Germany, the requirements of the Federal Railway Authority go beyond the EU standards: tunnels over 1000 metres long with mixed traffic must have two tunnel tubes. There must be no meeting traffic in regular operation. A timetable could therefore be designed in such a way that passenger and freight traffic do not meet. Deviations are possible if safety is guaranteed by other means and, in addition, compliance with individual provisions is disproportionate in individual cases.
> – An underground VKN is structurally possible. The study analysed 13 variants of underground VKN. All variants are feasible in the opinion of the experts. Many individual modules (e.g. ventilation systems) are already used in other European railway tunnels.
> The second unresolved issue is the undercrossing of the Inn at Rosenheim. This concerns the Ostermünchen-Innleiten planning section. DB AG intends to construct a crossing over the River Inn, which runs west of the city of Rosenheim, in the municipal area of Stephanskirchen. Further north of Rosenheim, the new line is to run in cuttings, on embankments and on bridges. In the area of the planned Inn bridge to Mintsberg, a combined solution consisting of embankment and bridge sections is planned. The 8.5 kilometre long Innleiten tunnel begins after the Inn crossing. By extending the Innleiten tunnel, not only would the Inn be crossed underneath, but also the area in the Ostermünchen-Innleiten planning section. This would avoid fragmentation of the landscape and visual barriers for neighbouring residents.
> II. the German Bundestag calls on the Federal Government
> 1. to dispense with the planned connection point at Kirnstein south of Rosenheim and to examine alternatives instead;
2. to examine a mining solution at Wildbarren instead of the planned above-ground Kirnstein junction;
3. to enable an undercrossing of the Inn north of Rosenheim;
4. to relocate the connection point at Ostermünchen two kilometres further north;
5. to examine the effects of an above-ground link at Kirnstein and an above-ground crossing of the Inn at Rosenheim with the further above-ground course of the railway line with regard to the fragmentation and sealing of areas, noise emissions, the existence of agricultural businesses, the landscape and the quality of life of local residents.
> Berlin, 4 June 2024
> Friedrich Merz, Alexander Dobrindt and parliamentary group
Thrice? Sausage roll thrice?
I hadn’t see the word thrice since I studied Shakespeare.
I don’t know man, it took Karlsruhe 12 fucking years to build the 4km subway, so I am somehow not surprised at all…
Deutschland ist kaputt.
lol. Somebody expected Germany to build train line. Even Germans don’t believe it’s possible anymore in this country.
Considering Germany has yet to build their part of the Gotthard tunnel with Switzerland to this day I think it was no surprise that they are gonna fuck up this european project aswell…I really hope once we open up the tunnel we will introduce a permanent “Blockabfertigung”. When the countless trucks will jam the roads up into Munich maybe their government will finally get their shit together.
Germany taking decades more then everyone else to build infrastructure?
Again?
Par for the course in Germany.
If you wanna have fun, read up on the Betuweroute: a train line purpose-built to connect the port of Rotterdam with the industry in the Rhine-Ruhr area.
Construction started in 1997 and finished in 2007. 158,5 km of track, of which over 100 was new (on the Dutch side).
The German section was supposed to be DONE in 2003; they started building it in 2016. They then decided it should be done by end of 2022, which has since be delayed to 2026.
This is, without a shadow of doubt, the industrially most important train line of Western Europe, connecting its biggest port with its biggest industrial heartland and while NL finished it (after investing billions) the Germans maybe will finish some 20 years later. I reckon the Dutch section may need considerable renovation work done by the time Germany gets its track operational. It’s bizarre.
If you like this pain: also look up the Friesenbrücke. One shipyard in Lower Saxony managed to destroy agreed upon plans to have a train from Amsterdam to Copenhagen via Bremen and Hamburg. Tough luck!
You don’t understand!!! The tunnel is for trains, not cars! Yes, you heard me right, it got me by surprise as well. Who on earth needs trains? Unless they can pay for themselves they have no right to exist. You’re not expecting us to… Invest??? The money is empty, the machines have to stand still until we get delivered more cash by the working class. Goodbye, see you in 2050… Or maybe a couple of years later. Tschüssi!