Merklingen - Schwäbische Alb station is a railway station in the municipality of Merklingen, located in the Alb-Donau district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The station is located on the Wendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway. The train services are operated by DB Regio Baden-Württemberg.
Location and structure The station is located about one kilometer northwest of the center of Merklingen. Two 215 m long and 2.50 m wide platforms were built. The four-track facility is spanned by an approximately 30 m long pedestrian walkway with two stair towers and integrated elevators. 400 parking spaces for cars, three spaces for buses and parking facilities for bicycles complete the facility. It comprises ten switches, including four catch points.
The tracks for the trains passing through are located on the inside, the platform tracks on the outside. They have a length of 600 meters. The entire station has a ballastless track, and ETCS Level 2 is used as the train protection system without conventional signals. Between the four entry signals there are eight exit signals (as ETCS Stop Marker) and three block indicators. The system is controlled by the Merklingen train dispatcher from the Neckartal computer-based interlocking sub-center.
The platform height is 76 cm, after a height of 55 cm was originally planned. The useful length of the two platforms is 210 m. Threading into and out of the platform tracks can take place at 100 km/h. The southern platform track is referred to as track 1 and the northern platform track as track 4.
The longitudinal gradient of the line is around 5 per mille in the station and is compensated for by measures in the platform design.
The station was built on the land available for the construction of the Wendlingen-Ulm high-speed railway; no additional land was taken up. An embankment was built on one side and a retaining wall on the other.
History Prehistory Until 1985, Merklingen had two stations on the disused Amstetten-Laichingen railway, the Merklingen station and the Merklingen East stop.
The regional planning assessment of the new line in 1995 included as a planning recommendation to keep open a further railway stop on the new line in the Merklingen area. A possible connection of the Dornstadt freight center to the new line via a stop in Merklingen was also mentioned in it. At that time, an overtaking station was planned near Merklingen.
In 2003, at an information event organized by DB Netz, people asked about a railway stop. Gerhard Maier, a citizen of Laichingen, arranged for the idea of a station on the Laichinger Alb to be taken into account in the project planning. Although an ICE stop at Laichinger Alb demanded by the Alb-Donau district during the planning approval procedure for the section was not included in the planning approval decision issued in 2008 for section 2.3 of the new line, the decision stated that the line layout and the distance to the highway would allow for a later retrofit. According to later information from the project management, the subsequent realization would not have been financially feasible.
After that, the idea of a railroad station was forgotten by politicians until construction work began on the new line. On the fringes of the Steinbühl Tunnel, Laichingen's mayor Klaus Kaufmann asked Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Transport Winfried Hermann for a discussion on the establishment of a train station in the Merklingen area, whereupon the latter promised to look into the matter in November 2013.Ministerium für Verkehr und Infrastruktur (publisher): Merklingen rail stop on the new Stuttgart-Ulm line is being examined (in German). Press release 18 November 2013. In the summer of 2013, the then District Administrator Heinz Surek wrote letters to members of parliament and ministers as well as initiatives in the Alb-Donau District Council to bring a regional train station back into the discussion. At the municipal level, an alliance was formed between the towns of the Laichinger Alb municipal administration association and the municipality of Berghülen.
Potential analysis At the beginning of 2014, the Alb-Donau district, with the financial participation of the interested communities, commissioned a potential analysis for a possible regional train station near Merklingen for 26,000 euros, which was presented in July 2014. According to the survey, about 1500 travelers would use the station daily. According to this first estimate, costs of 26.6 million euros were to be expected, with 4.8 million euros for planning and 21.8 million euros for construction. Since the additional stop increases travel time by 2 to 4 minutes, connections at the hub stations of Ulm and Stuttgart would be at risk. According to the analysis, this could be compensated for by using train equipment that can travel at speeds higher than 160 km/h on the new line, thus saving time. The potential analysis put the additional costs for nine 190 km/h regional trains at 23 to 45 million euros, which would have to be co-financed by the district and the municipalities.
According to the state of negotiations in the fall of 2014, the state would cover half of the infrastructure costs, the Alb-Donau district one sixth and the participating municipalities one third. The regional partners would also have to finance around 2.2 million euros for additional bus services and as a share in the purchase of fast regional trains; this does not include the proceeds from bus and rail services. The state's transport minister announced in February 2015 that he would finance half of the station's infrastructure costs and order trains for it, provided a cost-benefit analysis - as planned as part of the feasibility study - was presented and the municipalities financed the other half of the infrastructure costs and ordered buses. A feasibility study was commissioned by the Alb-Donau district and seven municipalities in the region at the end of 2014. The six municipalities of the Alb-Donau district were joined by Hohenstadt (district of Göppingen); the Ulm Chamber of Commerce and Industry also contributed to the costs.
Feasibility study The feasibility study presented on July 20, 2015, resulted in a benefit-cost factor of -0.3. Funding for the station under the State Municipal Transport Financing Act would thus not be possible. The main reason for the negative result was the assumed procurement of 10 faster train sets, for which 30 million euros were estimated. The 190 km/h fast trains were necessary to make the stop in Merklingen compatible with the ICE timetable of the line. Costs of 21 million euros were calculated for the entire infrastructure.
The study, which cost 226,000 euros, was based on the potential analysis and was carried out by a joint venture of the companies Obermeyer and Ramboll. It is based on the standardized evaluation. The experts expect about 950 passengers per day, an increasing demand for commercial space and - due to the proximity to the airport and the Stuttgart trade fair - positive effects for the hotel and restaurant industry. Furthermore, excursion guests are to be attracted with target group-oriented offers. The stop would reduce the number of passengers traveling on the Ulm-Sigmaringen line by about 250 per day, and on the Filstal line from Stuttgart to Ulm by 130. The feasibility study should serve as the basis for talks with the state about funding.
The feasibility study favored a station location west of Merklingen. The feasibility study is based on a conservative scenario (with 950 daily users); an optimistic scenario (with 1600 users) was not pursued further. The underlying forecast is based, among other things, on the assumption that commuters would take eleven minutes from turning into the parking lot to boarding; if seven were assumed, 1200 travelers could be expected. The authors of the feasibility study also assume that positive structural effects would not take effect until after the 2030 horizon of the study.
As a result, a project group consisting of representatives of the municipalities, the state ministry of transport and the railway was established.Ministerium für Verkehr und Infrastruktur (publisher): State and municipalities want to jointly realize Swabian Alb rail stop on the new Stuttgart-Ulm line (in German). Press release 23 October 2015
Realization discussion On July 24, 2015, a round of Alb mayors with Transport Minister Winfried Hermann, Hilde Mattheis, Member of the Bundestag, District Administrator Heinz Seiffert, four members of the state parliament, as well as representatives of the experts and the local transport company Baden-Württemberg agreed to find financing outside the state transport financing law. On the one hand, the federal government should be asked to consider a consideration of the stop in the federal traffic route planning, and on the other hand, the state should consider providing funds from the special assets formed for the Stuttgart-Ulm rail project. In addition, the mayors of the municipalities on the Laichinger Alb agreed to contribute 13 million euros (half of the infrastructure costs), subject to the approval of the individual municipal councils. According to the railroad, the preliminary planning must be completed by the fall of 2015, otherwise additional costs will have to be expected. On July 28, 2015, the Alb-Donau district council voted in favor of implementing the stop.
In September 2015, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure came to the conclusion in its own calculations for the benefit-cost analysis of the feasibility study that the station was economical and that the way was thus basically clear for funding by the state. Optimization of operational processes and additional infrastructure improvements on the southern runway could eliminate the need to purchase faster vehicles. To compensate for the two-minute increase in travel time caused by the stop in Merklingen, the purchase of used Interregio train sets or an early turnaround in Friedrichshafen (with a second driver) instead of Lindau is considered, while maintaining economic efficiency. A benefit-cost index of 2.23 was determined for the former variant, and 1.13 for the latter. In the second variant, additional signal compression on the Ulm–Friedrichshafen railway should help. The MVI announced that it would seek discussions with the Ministry of Finance on this basis.
The neighboring district of Göppingen mobilized against the project. The town of Geislingen an der Steige in particular feels that its location on the Fils Valley Railway would be weakened by a rail stop on the new line. In a resolution at the end of September 2015, the local council there called for the planning to be discontinued.
In talks between the ministry and the municipalities and the railway, it was agreed on October 23, 2015, to proceed with the planning, the costs of which were financed by the municipalities involved.
Nearly 6,000 people took part in a postcard campaign for the rail stop at the end of 2015.
Realization In 2015, Deutsche Bahn was prepared to build the station if the financing was secured, the operation of long-distance traffic was not impaired and the work fit into the construction schedule of the section between Hohenstadt and Merklingen, which was started in the summer of 2015.
For this to happen, building rights would have to be obtained in the course of 2016 and the structures needed for the station would have to be completed or at least started by the end of 2017, when the 87-million-euro contract for the section near Merklingen would be completed. The assumption of the cost risk became the subject of negotiations.
At the end of February 2016, it became known that Deutsche Bahn was demanding an investigation of the station's underground, for which costs in the millions of euros were to be incurred.