Further alternatives for the design of the area around the station in Salzgitter-Bad are to be examined.

As part of Deutsche Bahn's station offensive, the Salzgitter-Thiede station is set to receive a new replacement building on Wolfenbüttler Straße by 2026. The Salzgitter-Watenstedt and Salzgitter-Immendorf stations are also to be modernized by 2025 as part of the initiative to increase attractiveness and accessibility.

In addition, the Greater Braunschweig Regional Association decided last December that, at the request of the municipalities, the functional upgrading of the station environment and the improvement of the quality of stay at ÖPNV stations will be subsidized by 95% of the costs of the planning and construction projects. This funding opportunity is to be used for the three stations mentioned. Plans include bike-and-ride facilities at all three stations, the creation of a new bus stop with dynamic passenger information at the SZ-Immendorf station and park-and-ride facilities including e-charging stations at the SZ-Thiede and SZ-Watenstedt stations.

Lord Mayor Frank Klingebiel commented: "Attractive local public transport is of great importance for a large city like Salzgitter. The train stations and their surroundings in particular are our city's calling card. That's why I support Deutsche Bahn's current plans to renovate or rebuild the three stations and the funding promised by the Greater Braunschweig Regional Association. For the Salzgitter-Bad station, the BahnStadt GbR agency was commissioned by the Greater Braunschweig Regional Association to develop a variant for fundamentally redesigning the area around the station. This includes the relocation of the bus station to the area of the current park-and-ride facility and the conversion of the current bus station into a P+R facility. The total cost of these plans is currently around 4.74 million euros.

I will recommend that the Salzgitter City Council reject this planning variant and instruct the city administration and the regional association to develop further alternatives for upgrading the station area in Salzgitter-Bad. The variant currently proposed is not convincing for urban planning, traffic and financial reasons. The regional association must make considerable improvements here, particularly with regard to the question of whether and to what extent a cost-intensive exchange of the existing bus station with the existing park-and-ride facility should be beneficial. I see more problems than solutions in the current planning."

Contrary to the original plan, it will not be the Salzgitter City Council but the Salzgitter Administrative Committee that will have to decide at its meeting on May 26, as the Council has temporarily transferred its decision-making powers to the Administrative Committee until July 31, 2021 at the latest due to the coronavirus pandemic.