The Rosenstein tunnel () is the name of several past, present and planned tunnels in the

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

metropolitan area, in the German state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. Today it is a railway tunnel under

Rosenstein Park The Rosenstein Park () in Stuttgart is the largest English garden in southwest Germany. Its creation took place from 1824 to 1840 on the orders of King William I of Württemberg after plans of his gardener Johann Bosch on the former ''Kahlenst ...

to Bad Cannstatt. It now connects the

Fils Valley Railway The Fils Valley Railway (, historically ''Filsbahn'' or ''Württembergische Ostbahn''—Württemberg Eastern Railway) designates the Württemberg line from Stuttgart via Göppingen to Ulm. It runs from Plochingen to Geislingen an der Steige thr ...

(''Filstalbahn'') from

Stuttgart Central Station Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (; ) is the primary railway station in the city of Stuttgart, the state capital of Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. It is the largest regional and long-distance railway station in Stuttgart, the main node of the ...

(''Hauptbahnhof'') to the

Rosenstein Bridge Rosenstein () is surname of German and Yiddish origin. It may refer to: People * Allen B. Rosenstein (1920–2018), American systems engineers and UCLA Professor * Avraham Rosenstein, original name of Avraham Even-Shoshan * Barry Rosenstein, Ameri ...

over the

Neckar The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar ...

to Bad Cannstatt station.

Rosenstein first tunnel (1844-1915)

The first railway tunnel in Württemberg was built during the construction of the

Württemberg Central Railway The Central Railway ( or ''Centralbahn'') was the first phase of the History of railways in Württemberg, Württemberg railways. It was built between 1844 and 1846 by the Royal Württemberg State Railways (''Königlich Württembergischen Staats-E ...

(''Zentralbahn'') directly under the central axis of

Rosenstein Castle Rosenstein Castle () is a palace in Stuttgart, Germany. It was designed in the classical style by the architect and court builder Giovanni Salucci (1769–1845) as the summer palace for King Wilhelm I of Württemberg, and was built between 1822 a ...

. This tunnel was planned by Carl Etzel to link Stuttgart with Cannstatt. In principle, the Rosenstein hill could have been bypassed, but the tunnel allowed a better positioning of Cannstatt station and kept the palace garden (''Schlossgarten'') from being cut by the railway. Nevertheless, its construction was controversial, as critics feared damage to the castle, but King William I agreed to its construction. The building permit was issued on 14 March 1844. The tunnel was built using mining methods and construction began on 1 July 1844 and it was completed on 4 July 1846. The completion was delayed by a water and mud intrusion, caused by leaky basins around the castle. The slurry had to be removed from above and then the basins were sealed. This tunnel was 362 metres-long and was built with double track from the start. Once operations commenced in the new tunnels in November 1915, the old Rosenstein tunnel was taken out of service in 1916. It was used by three tenants for growing mushrooms from 1931 to 1965. In World War II, it served as an air raid shelter and was rented by

Mahle GmbH MAHLE GmbH is a German automotive parts manufacturer based in Stuttgart, Germany. It is one of the largest automotive suppliers worldwide. As a manufacturer of components and systems for the combustion engine and its periphery, the company is ...

until 1946. The Bad Cannstatt portal was walled up in 1966 and there are now underground facilities of

EnBW EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, or simply EnBW, is a publicly-traded energy industry, energy company headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany. History Foundation and development EnBW came into existence on 1 January 1997 as a result of the merge ...

inside the portal towards

(''Hauptbahnhof''). At the beginning of the 1990s the tunnel was declared to be part of the railway network and not abandoned. In 1992, the tunnel was transferred to the ownership of the state of Baden-Württemberg. It has been considered for the site of a mineral museum. Occasionally, it can be visited today.

Rosenstein second tunnel (from 1915)

When the Stuttgart rail network was reconstructed in the early 20th century, the section between the Central Station and Cannstatt (and beyond) was rebuilt with four tracks. Since the subgrade of Cannstatt station was raised, a new tunnel had to be built. This involved building two twin-track tunnels a little further to the east, which are both 331 metres-long. The two new tunnels were built between 1912 and 1914. The first tunnel went into operation in November 1915. The First World War and the lack of money stopped further work on the new railway lines in 1917. The 3rd and 4th track from Bad Cannstatt to the Central Station went into operation on 26 May 1925.

Later developments

Stuttgart 21

As part of the Stuttgart 21 project another railway tunnel will be built to replace the current Rosenstein tunnel. The preservation of the existing tunnel was examined but rejected in the course of the planning approval process because this would have meant that the railway network would have continued to divide the lower castle garden (''Schlossgarten''). The 3.4 km long tunnel will run between the new Neckar Bridge and the existing S-Bahn tunnel at the Central Station. The tunnel will initially start as two twin tubes at the Neckar Bridge, one carrying the S-Bahn and one carrying the long-distance tracks. The two tubes will subsequently cross each under Ehmannstraße. After the crossing structure, the two tunnels will each branch into two single-track tubes. A branch from the direction of the

Stuttgart North station Stuttgart North station () is a railway station in Stuttgart, Germany, serving the Stuttgart-North, North area of the city. It consists of a passenger railway station on the Stuttgart S-Bahn and a goods yard. History Owing to the increasing volu ...

will connect to the existing infrastructure of the

Stuttgart S-Bahn The Stuttgart S-Bahn is a suburban railway system (S-Bahn) serving the Stuttgart Region, an urban agglomeration of around 2.7 million people, consisting of the city of Stuttgart and the adjacent districts of Esslingen, Böblingen, Ludwigsb ...

. In the Mittnachtstrasse area a branch structure will be provided where the tracks to and from Stuttgart North merge with the tracks to and from Bad Cannstatt before the tunnel connects with the existing S-Bahn trunk line tunnel at the Central Station. The tunnel is part of zoning section 1.5 of the Stuttgart 21 project, which was approved on 29 May 2008.

B 10 road tunnel

A 1,050 metre-long road tunnel with two two-lane tubes was built under Rosenstein Park in association with the upgrade of Federal Highway B 10. Stuttgart City Council approved the €193.5 million project on 20 May 2010. The council had approved the development plan for the project in October 2012. Construction was planned to start in 2013 and to be commissioned in 2019. The tunnel was opened in March 2022 at an actual cost of €456 million. The construction of the road tunnel also involved rebuilding the Berg and Schwanenplatz road tunnels.

Notes

References

* (Section 1) * (Section 2) * (Section 3) {{coord, 48.7998, N, 9.2063, E, source:wikidata, display=title Railway lines in Baden-Württemberg Transport in Stuttgart