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Deutsche Bahn admits Stuttgart 21 Tiefbahnhof needs three more billion euros and five extra years
Deutsche Bahn delays Stuttgart 21 Tiefbahnhof until 2031 and raises budget to 14.5 billion
Stuttgart 21’s new Tiefbahnhof will not open until 2031—five years later than the last official target—and will cost €14.5 billion, the Deutsche Bahn confirmed on 26 June 2026, as its chief executive Evelyn Palla described “gravierende Mängel” in planning and control that have driven the project deeper into delay and debt.
The revised schedule, published simultaneously by Handelsblatt, Süddeutsche Zeitung and ORF, replaces the previous completion date of 2026 and raises the budget from €11.5 billion to €14.5 billion—an increase of €3 billion announced only hours before the shift was confirmed. Palla told reporters the additional costs stem from “Fehler in der Vergangenheit,” including flawed geotechnical assumptions and repeated coordination failures between contractors and the state of Baden-Württemberg.
The project’s central shaft in Stuttgart’s city centre remains a 120-metre-deep construction site, its completion now pushed back to at least 2031. The delay will also affect regional and long-distance services, as the old above-ground station must remain operational until the new underground node is certified. Baden-Württemberg’s transport minister Winfried Hermann said the state would reopen talks on cost-sharing, warning that further increases could not be ruled out.
Critics in the state parliament’s inquiry committee, which has met monthly since 2023, accused the Bahn of withholding internal audit reports that flagged schedule slippage as early as 2021. A leaked 2024 document cited in the Süddeutsche Zeitung showed planners had already anticipated a 2029 opening before quietly shelving the scenario.
With tunnelling machines idle for weeks during winter 2025-26 due to ground-water surges, the project’s contractors have filed for arbitration, seeking compensation for idle-time costs. The Bahn’s supervisory board is scheduled to vote on 10 July 2026 on a revised risk-mitigation plan that includes additional geotechnical drilling and a third-party project-management office. Palla said she would present the plan to the federal transport ministry the same week.
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