The new structure is designed to distribute flows of people and reduce transfer times between suburban commuter trains and long-distance trains.
This plan has been discussed for more than just one year. The public association of passengers Pro Bahn brought forward this idea more than ten years ago, arguing the necessity of the construction by citing the annual increase in the load on the central part of the station. In 2019, Hans Reichhart, who then held the post of Minister of Transport of Bavaria, officially handed over a decision to the railway management on the allocation of a targeted subsidy in the amount of 265 thousand euros.
These funds were intended for launching the design of the pedestrian bridge at the main station. Seven years have passed since that moment, but until now only a preliminary assessment of the technical part of the project had been prepared. Possibly because this project is secondary compared to the construction of the new station and the second line of the suburban commuter train. After all, first big facilities are built, and only then do they move on to the details.
The Necessity of Integrating the New Walkway into the Existing Station Layout
Recently, a representative of the Green party, Markus Büchler, who oversees transport infrastructure development issues, recalled the necessity of the construction. According to him, the facility is secured in the federal transport infrastructure development plan as a priority project, and its implementation needs to be started immediately.
Büchler believes that the presence of such a bridge would have allowed for preventing the crowding and congestion of passengers that occurred at the Starnberg part of the station last week, since the planned structure would have distributed a portion of the dense passenger flow.
Now, the implementation of the project is beginning to move forward. The railway company has announced a tender for the execution of the first two stages of the design work, including initial data collection and preliminary design. Details of the future construction have become known for the first time from the text of the tender documentation.
According to the technical specifications, the 210-meter-long bridge will stretch from the Holzkirchen terminal to the Starnberg terminal and will cross all railway tracks outside the main station building.
Technical Parameters and Architectural Constraints of the Project
The structure will provide access to each platform from tracks 11 to 26 by means of conventional stairs and escalators. Additionally, it is planned to install 15 elevators, 14 of which will lead directly to the boarding platforms, while another one will be located at the northern end of the bridge to ensure barrier-free access to the underpass on Paul-Heyse-Straße.
There is also a restriction: due to the insufficient width of the platforms at the Starnberg terminal, the company abandoned the installation of escalators in this zone. The width of the flights of stairs there is strictly regulated and will amount to 1.60 meters.
The completed project must be submitted in September 2028. The client requires maximum thoroughness in the execution of work from potential designers, since the facility will be located in the immediate vicinity of the old station building, which is recognized as an architectural monument.
The new structure must correspond to the surrounding architectural ensemble in its scale, level of structural transparency, and selection of materials. The timeline for the actual erection of the pedestrian bridge has not yet been determined.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the transition of plans for the construction of the pedestrian bridge into the stage of practical design is an important step on the way to the modernization of the Munich railway hub. Despite the delay in implementing the idea of the Pro Bahn association, the announced tender lays the foundation for a systemic solution to the problem of high passenger density on the platforms.
