Rail traffic is blocked throughout Germany. Deutsche Bahn has suspended circulation nationwide due to an interruption of the GSM-R digital railway radio: at the moment all trains are stopped, both the high-speed Ice and long-distance ones and the regional ones.
Stopped trains, delays and cancellations
According to Deutsche Bahn, the trains will remain stopped until a safe resumption of traffic is guaranteed. There are already heavy delays and cancellations. On board the Ice trains the announcements informed passengers that the stop concerns the entire network – not only long-distance but also regional ones – and bottles of water are distributed on some trains.
What happened: GSM-R radio outage
According to a company spokesperson, the cause of the block was the interruption of GSM-R, the digital railway radio that manages service communications along the network. “Our technicians are working at full speed to remedy the malfunction,” the spokesperson said.
German railway spokesperson: “No more trains will run tonight”
The interruption of rail traffic in Germany affects all trains – urban, regional and long-distance operated by Deutsche Bahn – said the Berlin public transport authority on X. Traffic is completely suspended in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the western part of the country, according to state police. In the north of the country, trains are “completely at a standstill, as rail radio communications are disrupted on a large scale,” the private regional railway company Metropol said. “We believe that there will be no more trains running this evening,” Metropol spokesman Simon Martens told AFP. Metropol operates regional lines around Hamburg, Bremen and Hanover, carrying over 120,000 passengers per day. The company urged customers to “no longer take train journeys today” and to seek alternative means of transport.