According to the FAZ, the city’s light rail development company has reported an additional funding requirement of 72 million euros for the U5 expansion in its 2025 annual financial statement. Whether this amount is final remains unclear. A spokesperson said the extra funding was reported in advance for budgetary reasons, regardless of whether the sum is already reliable.
The exact additional costs are currently being calculated for a proposal to be submitted to the city parliament in 2027. The total cost for the 2.7-kilometer route was last estimated at 515 million euros. About 1.2 kilometers of the new section will run through a tunnel.
The cost increase is due to high prices for materials and services. As early as September 2024, the managing directors announced that additional financing would be needed in 2027 because bids for tenders were sometimes significantly higher than expected. For some tenders, no company applied at all due to high demand, especially from railway infrastructure projects. Construction time has consequently been extended: no subway trains will run from the main station to the Europaviertel before 2029. Construction of the above-ground section along Europa-Allee began in spring.
Source: www.faz.net
