The situation is being seriously complicated by restrictions on the main diversion route between Hannover and Hamburg, which is currently serving as an alternative to the Berlin—Hamburg corridor. In addition, the already difficult operational situation was further worsened on Friday by an overhead line failure between Wunstorf and Nienburg.
Rail traffic is experiencing significant delays, and in some sections it has come to a complete standstill. Unfortunately, even the partial reopening of the Berlin—Hagenow section has not brought the expected relief to operations.
The infrastructure manager is rerouting trains via diversion routes across Northern Germany, with nighttime transit slots primarily allocated to freight trains. However, it is becoming evident that these measures are insufficient. Trains are accumulating in all directions — from north to south and from east to west — effectively leading to a blockage of the entire network. As a result of this situation, we have been forced to temporarily park some train sets.
Due to this critical situation, the traffic ban in the Elbe Valley was exceptionally lifted today in order to at least partially ease congestion on railway routes.
Due to limited railway infrastructure capacity and traffic regulations imposed by HPA and Bremen Ports, some services were unable to reach the ports before the holidays or depart from them.
Hamburg: HPA controls train arrivals. Import delays of up to 3 days. No significant delays in exports.
Bremerhaven: BremenPorts controls train arrivals. Import delays of up to 3 days; export delays of up to 2 days.
Wilhelmshaven: No significant delays.
DE National: Delays of up to 5 days in both directions.
Rotterdam / Duisburg: Rotterdam export delays of up to 2 days; all other delays are within a few hours.
