GERMANY: Plans are being developed for a light rail line running east and west from Ludwigsburg, north of Stuttgart.
This would incorporate a disused but intact railway alignment running west from Ludwigsburg station to Markgröningen, and a newly-built route running eastwards from Ludwigsburg to Pattonville, a former US military housing complex now used as a civilian residential area, and then to Aldingen and Remseck on Stuttgart Stadtbahn route U12.
The reactivation of the disused railway line for use by high-floor LRVs is seen as a relatively simple project and the Mayor of Markgröningen is keen for it to proceed as soon as possible.
However the construction of a new alignment through central Ludwigsburg would be more challenging, and this section is expected to be completed at a later date. Various routes have been proposed, with studies presented by the VWI institute of transport research on October 25 favouring southern options via Königinallee or Robert-Franck-Allee as these could be completed soonest.
‘While preliminary operation on the Markgröninger Bahn is relatively easy, the inner-city network with new routes, new low-floor light rail vehicles and a light rail depot could only take place as a whole — and well into the next decade’, explained Frank von Meißner, Managing Director of the Zweckverband Stadtbahn association which was established by a group of local authorities in January to promote the project.
