German Minister Emphasizes Delay in Brenner Tunnel North Link Project

The Deutsche Bahn has finished the pre‑planning stage for the Brenner‑Nordzulauf, a new railway corridor that will link Munich with the Austrian border and feed into the Brenner base tunnel scheduled to open in 2032. The agency outlined six phases, with the currently ongoing parliamentary review of the preferred route and the subsequent design and approval steps still pending.

German State Minister for Europe Gunther Krichbaum acknowledged that Germany has long under‑invested in such infrastructure and cited lengthy permitting procedures and multiple stakeholders as causes of the delay. He pointed to the new Infrastructure Acceleration Act as a means to speed up projects and reiterated the goal of shifting more freight traffic from road to rail, emphasizing wider benefits for European mobility. Krichbaum also referenced recent temporary border controls with Austria, linking them to illegal migration concerns and a broader EU asylum reform effort.