Train traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate continues to be severely impaired due to the flooding.
Numerous routes are completely closed or can only be used to a limited extent, the Deutsche Bahn announced on Friday in Düsseldorf.
"The water masses have severely damaged the tracks, points, signaling technology, train stations and signal boxes in many parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate." In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, tracks over a length of around 600 kilometers are affected.
The determination of the damage is still in full swing.
In local transport, numerous S-Bahn and regional lines still do not run or only to a limited extent, as the train announced. As far as the road conditions allow, replacement buses are on the way. Because the tracks are under and over-washed, trains can no longer run on the Danube Railway between Ehingen and Munderkingen (both Alb-Danube district). According to the SWEG Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-AG, the route is expected to be closed from Friday until around noon on Monday. Buses run as emergency services. According to the announcement, train traffic has been impaired since Thursday evening.
In long-distance traffic, among other things, the Cologne-Wuppertal-Hagen-Dortmund section is currently not passable.
There are train and stop failures.
This also applies to the Cologne-Koblenz route via Bonn main station.
The Cologne-Düsseldorf-Essen-Dortmund route can only be used with considerable restrictions.
International long-distance traffic to and from Brussels is also still interrupted, as numerous routes in Belgium are closed.