Evaluation of Early Public Participation

Early public participation in railway infrastructure projects. Evaluation of different approaches

In its coalition agreement, the current German government has set itself the goal of significantly expanding the capacity of the rail network. The share of rail freight transport is to be increased to 25 per cent by 2030 and passenger transport capacity is to be doubled. In reality, however, the targets for expansion and new construction are lagging behind. Ever since the events surrounding the construction of the Stuttgart railway station in 2010 and the subsequent nationwide public debates, efforts have been made to generally improve public involvement in the approval of infrastructure projects.    

Early (informal) public participation takes place before the formal public participation required by law.  As the legislator has not specified the organisation of early public participation, the research project starts at this point and will answer the following research questions:    

• How can the success of early public participation be defined and measured?   

• Which formats of early public participation have proved successful?   

• Have online-based formats, such as those made possible by the Planning Security Act (PlanSiG), also played a role?   

• How do framework conditions in the region prior to the actual planning process affect early public participation? For example, do previous participation procedures or the multiple impacts of other infrastructures have an impact on new procedures?    

• How can the upcoming planning be presented in an understandable way at an early stage?   

Methodologically, the first step is to carry out a literature review and to develop an impact model with hypotheses on the factors influencing early public participation. The next step is to identify railway infrastructure projects with early public participation and to select case studies. The case studies will be comprehensively analysed and the hypotheses will be empirically tested, e.g. by conducting interviews.   

The findings will be translated into recommendations for action for those involved in railway infrastructure projects, aimed at different target groups. The recommendations will be validated in an online workshop with key stakeholders and finally presented to a wider audience at a one-day event in Berlin at the end of 2025.