Lawsuits against DB drilling for Brenner inflow dismissed
Deutsche Bahn is allowed to explore the soil and groundwater in the district of Rosenheim for the planning of the new Brenner Base Tunnel route. The Munich Administrative Court has dismissed complaints by the municipalities of Stephanskirchen and Rohrdorf against the exploration. The Rosenheim district office had permitted the drilling. The municipalities had not shown how this could violate their rights, the court announced on Thursday. They can appeal against the ruling to the Bavarian Administrative Court.
At the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, a lawsuit against subsoil investigations into the northern intake was also declared settled. A landowner and the municipality of Stephanskirchen had considered the drinking water supply to be endangered by the construction of a new railroad line from Grafing via Rosenheim and Kiefersfelden in the direction of Brenner.
A spokeswoman for the court in Leipzig said that the fact that the parties involved declared the matter closed on Thursday was merely for legal reasons. The deadline for the toleration order for the investigations had expired. In the meantime, a new decision had been issued with a new deadline. It remains to be seen whether and how the plaintiffs will appeal again. (Ref.: BVerwG 7 A 11.22 and 7 A 1.23)
The Brenner Base Tunnel, which is being built in Austria and Italy, is due to be completed in around ten years and will help to transfer more freight traffic from road to rail. The access route on the German side is around 60 kilometers long from Grafing to Kiefersfelden. As things stand at present, this new line could go into operation around 2040. However, there is opposition from politicians and citizens' initiatives in the region. They say that the new construction is unnecessary.
Truck traffic on the chronically congested Brenner highway has more than doubled in recent decades. The consequences are long traffic jams. In October, Italy took Austria to the European Court of Justice over the controversial block clearance of trucks in Tyrol.
The exploration of soil and groundwater by Deutsche Bahn for the Brenner Base Tunnel route is not just limited to Rosenheim, as similar subsoil investigations are also being conducted in the northern intake. These investigations are crucial for planning the new railroad line from Grafing to Kiefersfelden, aimed at reducing traffic congestion on the Brenner highway by transferring more freight traffic from road to rail. Despite these measures, municipalities and landowners continue to raise concerns about potential violations of their rights and the impact on transportation infrastructure, demonstrated by the lawsuits mentioned in Leipzig.
Source: www.dpa.com
