It has long been known that Stuttgart 21 will be more expensive than originally planned. However, it was still unclear who would have to pay the billions in additional costs. Now a verdict has been made.
Deutsche Bahn has to bear the billions in additional costs of the Stuttgart 21 rail project alone. On Tuesday, the Stuttgart Administrative Court dismissed the lawsuits of several railway companies against the state of Baden-Württemberg, the city of Stuttgart, the Stuttgart Region Association and Stuttgart Airport. With the lawsuits, the DB wanted to ensure that the project partners contributed financially to the additional costs of reorganizing the Stuttgart rail junction. The lawsuits were partly inadmissible and partly admissible, but unfounded, said presiding judge Wolfgang Kern when announcing the verdict.
The railway, which is officially the developer of Stuttgart 21, currently estimates the total costs for Stuttgart 21 at around 11 billion euros and has also factored in a buffer of 500 million euros. However, a financing agreement from 2009 only regulates the distribution of costs up to a total of around 4.5 billion euros.
It was unclear who would bear the additional costs. The so-called speaking clause was anchored in the contract to deal with possible cost increases. What exactly was meant by the speaking clause was very controversial between the project partners. The railway assumed a “joint financing responsibility” and found that “the speaking clause establishes a right to further financing participation,” as the company announced. The project partners saw it differently and insisted that fixed amounts had been agreed.
Participating in the additional costs would have meant massive burdens for the project partners. In a negotiation, the state capital of Baden-Württemberg warned of possible negative consequences for the municipal budget. If there is an investment, the investments would have to be stopped for a long time, a representative of the municipality emphasized to the administrative court. The other project partners also pointed out possible negative consequences for their budgets. The Ministry of Transport announced that the state of Baden-Württemberg would have incurred additional costs of around 2.8 billion euros if it participated.