{"id":307665,"date":"2025-07-31T22:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T22:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307665\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T22:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T22:24:10","slug":"deutsche-bahn-closes-germanys-top-route-dw-07-31-2025-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307665\/","title":{"rendered":"Deutsche Bahn closes Germany’s top route \u2013 DW \u2013 07\/31\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starting August 1, Deutsche Bahn<\/a>‘s 280-kilometer (174-mile) route linking\u00a0Berlin<\/a> to Hamburg<\/a> will be completely closed for at least nine months<\/a>. With up to 30,000 passengers daily, it is the most heavily used direct connection in Germany’s long-distance rail transport. Around 230 regional, long-distance\u00a0and freight trains travel daily on the tracks between Germany’s two largest cities.<\/p>\n

Starting Friday, the intercity passenger trains will have to take a 100-kilometer detour, while freight trains will be rerouted even further. In addition, 170 buses will be deployed daily to continue connecting the towns between Berlin and Hamburg that will be cut off from rail service. Both the construction work and the replacement transport will be complex and potentially\u00a0prone to disruption.<\/p>\n

Dilapidated infrastructure, decades of neglect<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Deutsche Bahn reported a loss of \u20ac760 million for the first half of the year. The company billed this as progress, as losses had been reduced by almost \u20ac1 billion compared to the previous year.<\/p>\n

“Deutsche Bahn is facing its biggest crisis in 30 years,” CEO Richard Lutz admitted in May. “We cannot ensure stable operations on a fault-prone and outdated infrastructure.”<\/p>\n

World’s first hydrogen train runs in Germany

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Germany’s national rail network covers around 33,500 kilometers (20,800 miles)\u00a0of tracks. As a state-owned company, the operator Deutsche Bahn is dependent on subsidies from the federal government, which critics say has invested far too little in infrastructure over the last few decades.<\/p>\n

In fact, some tracks, junctures\u00a0and even signal boxes date back to the 19th century. Many systems are completely worn out, almost beyond repair, and now so outdated that they are unusable for digitally controlled rail operations, which are to become standard.<\/p>\n

There is no way around completely rebuilding them. The “general renovation” project<\/a> began in 2024, with a\u00a0focus on 41 main lines, which have\u00a0a combined length of 4,200 kilometers and\u00a0are essential for the operation.<\/p>\n

Deutsche Bahn’s biggest overhaul<\/p>\n

The 70-kilometer line between Frankfurt am Main and Mannheim\u00a0was the first to be revamped. It was completely closed for six months as tracks and overhead lines were torn out and reinstalled.<\/p>\n

The 20 stations along the route, the signaling technology\u00a0and the sound insulation were also renewed. However, installation of digital technology turned out to be more complicated than expected. Construction costs rose to more than \u20ac1.5 billion ($1.73 billion) \u2014 twice as much as anticipated.<\/p>\n

The Federal Audit Office, which monitors the government’s budget management, subsequently accused the Federal Transport Ministry of negligence, arguing\u00a0that Deutsche Bahn should have been required to prove the economic viability of its actions.<\/p>\n

Further\u00a0renovation\u00a0funds should only be made available once the\u00a0Transport Ministry has “proven beyond doubt that they were necessary and economical,” the office said.<\/p>\n

This led Deutsche Bahn to announce that the general renovation would be extended by six years until 2036.<\/p>\n

The company has now significantly scaled back its original construction plans. The number of new passing tracks and switches \u2014\u00a0which\u00a0ensure that fast trains can overtake slow ones \u2014 has been reduced.<\/p>\n

The installation of the European Train Control System (ETCS) has been postponed until the next decade.<\/p>\n

The government has pledged additional funds to renovate the\u00a0rail network, with\u00a0Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder promising\u00a0rail infrastructure\u00a0investments totaling \u20ac107 billion by 2029. Most of the money is to come from the debt-financed special fund for infrastructure and climate protection launched at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n

How to travel by train in Germany

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Delays cost millions<\/p>\n

Currently, only 62% of German trains are considered to be on time<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0that is, those that arrive within\u00a0six minutes of their scheduled time. Canceled trains are just as common as trains that don’t reach their final destination. When there’s a strike, or outside temperatures are very high or very low, there are even more problems.<\/p>\n

Traveling by train in Germany requires a lot of time, a lot of patience\u00a0and strong nerves. Delays of two to three hours are not uncommon. In 2024, Deutsche Bahn had to pay its passengers almost \u20ac200 million in compensation, almost \u20ac70 million more than the previous year.<\/p>\n

More competition on the railways?<\/p>\n

The Federal Audit Office has also issued a warning that money alone will not be able to solve the “ongoing crisis” at Deutsche Bahn, and\u00a0has called\u00a0for a complete overhaul of the entire company, including an “adjustment of the corporate structure.” That would\u00a0mean unbundling the corporation with its many hundreds of holdings and subsidiaries.<\/p>\n

For years, there has also been discussion about separating rail infrastructure from transport, to enable more private companies to enter competition on the railways.<\/p>\n

Currently, the auditors have little hope that the railway\u00a0will soon recover. In its report in May, it concluded that Deutsche Bahn\u00a0will not be able to meet “transport and climate policy expectations in the foreseeable future.”<\/p>\n

This article was originally written in German.<\/p>\n

While you’re here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter, Berlin Briefing.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starting August 1, Deutsche Bahn‘s 280-kilometer (174-mile) route linking\u00a0Berlin to Hamburg will be completely closed for at least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-307665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114950194239177100","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}