Trunk Line 2 (german: Zweite Stammstrecke, translation=Second Trunk Line) is an under-construction double track

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Downtown, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter r ...

tunnel in the

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n capital of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Background

Nearly all lines of the

Munich S-Bahn The Munich S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn München) is an electric rail transit system in Munich, Germany. " S-Bahn" is the German abbreviation for ''Stadtschnellbahn'' (literally, "urban rapid rail"), and the Munich S-Bahn exhibits characteristics of b ...

use the Stammstrecke through the city centre in the underground, creating a bottle-neck responsible for long and increasingly frequent delays from even the smallest disruptions. The route has been upgraded to its limits to enable shorter headways including by implementing the

Spanish solution In railway and rapid transit parlance, the Spanish solution is a station layout with two railway platforms, one on each side of the track, which allows for separate platforms for boarding and alighting. Description This platform arrangement allo ...

at busy stations, automatically opening all doors as soon as the train stops (as opposed to the more usual opening of train doors only when a button is pushed) and upgrading signaling. The disadvantage of the current core route is the inability of trains to reroute themselves onto different tracks in the event of disruption. After years of discussions and studies into different route propositions, a second tunnel through the city centre has been already approved with the funding of €3.85 billion and the completion date of 2026. On 5 April 2017, the ground-breaking ceremony took place to commence the construction. The second tunnel will be in length and run in parallel with the current tunnel in the south on the western portion of Hauptbahnhof and in the north on the eastern portion. It will have three underground stations (Hauptbahnhof, Marienhof, Ostbahnhof), and two surface stations (Laim and Leuchtenbergring). Marienhof, under construction to the north of

Marienplatz Marienplatz ( English: Mary's Square, i.e. St. Mary, Our Lady's Square) is a central square in the city centre of Munich, Germany. It has been the city's main square since 1158. History During the Middle Ages, markets and tournaments were hel ...

, which will be the only all-new station; other stations will be expanded to accommodate the new tunnel. With focus on express service and shorter travel time, the second tunnel will bypass six current stations between Laim and Ostbahnhof. Most of express S-Bahn with limited stops will use the second tunnel: the proposed express S-Bahn routes are S18X (Herrsching-Leuchtenbergring), S21X (Landshut-Leuchtenbergring), S23X (Mering-Flughafen München), and S24X (Buchloe-Leuchtenbergring). Two of current S-Bahn routes will be transferred to the second tunnel upon the completion: S1 (Flughafen München/Freising-Ebersberg) and S6 (Tutzing-Leuchtenbergring).

References

External links

* {{coord missing, Bavaria Munich S-Bahn Munich S-Bahn lines Railway lines in Bavaria Standard gauge railways in Germany Buildings and structures in Munich Underground commuter rail