Region · Baden-Württemberg
Steffen Bilger's constituency lies on the northern edge of Stuttgart, where baroque palaces, filter factories, test tracks and some of Germany's busiest commuter routes share the same few kilometres. Transport questions are part of everyday life here.
Section A — the place
Ludwigsburg is both a city and a district. The city of Ludwigsburg, founded in the early eighteenth century as a residence of the Dukes of Württemberg, is the seat of the Landkreis (rural district) of the same name.
The Landkreis Ludwigsburg lies largely in the Neckar basin immediately north of Stuttgart and belongs to the Verband Region Stuttgart, the regional authority that is responsible for the S-Bahn and coordinates planning across the city region. It has 39 municipalities and, measured by population, is the seventh-largest Landkreis in Germany. A densely built-up corridor runs north from Stuttgart through Kornwestheim, Ludwigsburg, Freiberg am Neckar and Bietigheim-Bissingen; to the west lie the farming plateaus of the Strohgäu and the Enz valley.
The federal constituency is smaller than the district. Wahlkreis 265 takes in the southern and western part of the Landkreis, fifteen municipalities from Asperg and Ditzingen to Remseck am Neckar and Vaihingen an der Enz, and since 2017 also Weissach, which belongs to the neighbouring Landkreis Böblingen. The northern part of the district votes in Wahlkreis 266 Neckar-Zaber. The full list of towns, and the constituency's history, are on the constituency page.
Industrial context
The Landkreis has around 170,000 jobs, and about 37% of employees work in manufacturing, chiefly vehicle building, metalworking and plastics. In the Prognos "Zukunftsatlas" ranking of German districts' economic prospects it placed 12th of 402 in 2016 and 18th of 401 in 2019.
The filtration group has its headquarters in Ludwigsburg. Its filters go into engines, vehicle cabins, industrial plant and water treatment. A 2023 regional ranking put the group's worldwide workforce at 23,211; that is a global figure, not a local one.
Bosch runs a large development site in Schwieberdingen, with about 6,500 employees in 2018. Its work includes high-voltage batteries for electric vehicles, a direct link between this constituency and the move away from the combustion engine.
Porsche's development centre is in Weissach. Weissach was added to the constituency in 2017, which brought one of the best-known names in German car engineering into Bilger's area.
The same 2023 ranking lists BorgWarner's Ludwigsburg operation, with 2,165 employees, among the district's largest employers. Many smaller suppliers and engineering firms work for carmakers in and around Stuttgart.
The car industry is also a recurring subject in Bilger's statements. As Parliamentary State Secretary in 2018 he said that Germany, as "the number one car-making country", should aim to lead in every drive technology, and in October 2025 he argued against an unchanged EU ban on new combustion-engine cars from 2035. His positions are set out on the political positions page; the wider link between transport and industry is on transport and the economy.
Section B — the network
The constituency contains a good deal of federal transport infrastructure. The A 81 motorway from Stuttgart to Heilbronn and Würzburg passes Ludwigsburg; the B 27 and B 10 federal roads carry commuter traffic towards Stuttgart. All three are federal trunk roads, built and financed by the federal government.
On rail, three lines of the Stuttgart S-Bahn serve the area: the S4 via Ludwigsburg towards Marbach and Backnang, the S5 via Ludwigsburg to Bietigheim-Bissingen, and the S6 through Korntal and Ditzingen in the south-west. Stuttgart's light-rail Stadtbahn reaches Gerlingen (U6) and Remseck (U12). The Strohgäubahn, a local railway, runs into the western plateau. The high-speed line from Mannheim to Stuttgart has a stop at Vaihingen an der Enz, and Kornwestheim has the second-largest marshalling yard in Baden-Württemberg.
Local debate
The best-known transport argument in Ludwigsburg in recent years concerned a project that is local rather than federal. In 2022 the towns and the district were planning a new Stadtbahn, a light-rail line known locally as "Lucie", from Markgröningen via Ludwigsburg to Pattonville, a former US Army housing area between Ludwigsburg and Kornwestheim.
On 19 November 2025 the Ludwigsburg municipal council (Gemeinderat) voted to stop all route planning for a tram through the city and on to Pattonville. The majority was formed by the CDU, the Free Voters, the AfD, the FDP and some Green councillors. What remains is the reactivation of the existing railway line between Markgröningen and Ludwigsburg.
No public statement by Steffen Bilger on the Stadtbahn or the council vote of November 2025 was found in the sources consulted for this site. His view is therefore not given here.
Light rail is planned and decided by municipalities and districts. The federal government's role is financial: under the Municipal Transport Financing Act (GVFG) it co-funds large local public transport projects, with around €2.08 billion budgeted for municipal transport in the 2027 draft budget.
Interpretation
The following is this site's reading of the connection between the constituency and Bilger's federal work. It is analysis, not a statement by Bilger.
Much of the area is commuter country for Stuttgart and its industrial suburbs. The reliability of the S-Bahn depends partly on the federally owned rail network, so rail policy decided in Berlin is felt on platforms in Kornwestheim and Ludwigsburg.
The A 81 and the federal roads are federal property, and the Kornwestheim yard is a node in national rail freight. Road and logistics decisions therefore have a direct local footprint.
Suppliers and developers such as Bosch, Mann+Hummel and Porsche are exposed to EU rules on vehicle emissions and to the pace of electrification, themes Bilger has taken up repeatedly.
Like every directly elected MP, Bilger keeps a constituency office and appears at local party and association events, such as the Senioren-Union meeting pictured above. How that work is organised is described on the constituency page.