Verband Region Stuttgart gets more money for the S-Bahn: Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg

The Verband Region Stuttgart also benefits from the federal government’s increase in regionalization funds. The higher allocations are primarily intended to cushion cost increases in the energy sector. In addition, the S-Bahn is to be strengthened as an environmentally friendly mode of transport.

In order to cushion price increases as a result of the Ukraine war, the federal government’s regionalization funds were increased by a total of 1 billion euros for all federal states in 2022. From 2023, they will be made dynamic by 3 percent annually. In this way, the existing traffic can be secured for the time being.

The backbone of public transport in the Stuttgart region

Transport Minister Winfried Hermann said: “We are pleased that the S-Bahn, as the backbone of public transport in the Stuttgart region, is benefiting from these grants. The network expansions and frequency increases planned by the association are important for the mobility turnaround in the state. This is positive news in times of route closures and quality issues.”

Regional Director Dr. Lahl emphasized: “The cost increases in all areas of life have long since arrived in public transport and are a considerable challenge for the traffic turnaround. The federal funds that are now flowing to the region via the state are an important building block for the implementation of the planned traffic improvements in the S-Bahn. For this purpose, intensive construction is currently underway. And at the same time, they are essential in order to be able to meet the requirements resulting from the extensive construction sites and the Deutschlandticket.”

Federal and state funding

With the so-called regionalization funds, the federal states are entitled to an annual amount from the joint tax revenue of the federal and state governments for public transport. This is used to finance local rail passenger transport in particular. The Stuttgart Region Association (VRS) is responsible for the Stuttgart S-Bahn according to state regulations and receives a proportion of the funds. The agreement between the VRS and the state of Baden-Württemberg, which runs until 2031, stipulates that the association will receive at least 9.9 percent of the regionalization funds allocated to Baden-Württemberg. He thus automatically benefits from every increase in regionalization funds by the federal government.