Rail travelers have to be prepared for significant restrictions in and around Frankfurt during the Easter holidays.

Due to construction work, the Frankfurt City Tunnel will be closed to S-Bahn traffic for three and a half weeks, Deutsche Bahn announced on Wednesday.

In addition, the S-Bahn line 6 between Frankfurt-West and Bad Vilbel will be completely closed for two and a half weeks during the holiday weeks - as was the case in the summer of last year.

Alternatively, buses will be used and train lines will be diverted.

The construction work in and around Frankfurt will have an impact on long-distance traffic, in some cases there will be no stop at Frankfurt Central Station.

Ralph Euler

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung, responsible for the Rhein-Main section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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The central Frankfurt S-Bahn tunnel will remain closed between the Hauptwache and Offenbach-Ost or Frankfurt-Süd stations from March 31 to April 24;

the Ostendstraße station from March 27th.

Switches and nine kilometers of tracks would have to be renewed, and work would also be carried out on the Offenbach tunnel stations.

Replacement buses are to leave Offenbach-Ost about every five minutes in the direction of Frankfurt-Süd, the airport or Konstablerwache;

the offer on the tram line 16 Offenbach-Frankfurt will be expanded.

The S-Bahn lines 8 and 1 will be diverted to ensure a connection from the east to Frankfurt.

In the city, the subways run at shorter intervals.

According to Bahn, around 1,100 trains run in the Frankfurt S-Bahn tunnel every day.

Parallel to the tunnel work, the construction of the own tracks for the S 6 between Frankfurt and Bad Vilbel is being continued at full speed.

To do this, the route must be closed from March 31 to April 17, trains are diverted, end prematurely or are cancelled.

In the last week of the Easter holidays, trains to and from the north will again be running according to the timetable.

IC and ICE trains will be diverted

During the Easter holidays, construction activities are to be concentrated on the station in Frankfurt-Eschersheim.

After completion of the work in April, the next two kilometers of new tracks could be put into operation, it is said.

In Eschersheim, the partial demolition of the existing platform and the construction of noise protection walls are also on the agenda.

Between Groß-Karben and Frankfurt-West/Hauptbahnhof, the S-Bahn will be replaced by regional or express buses from March 31 to April 17, which will depart every 30 minutes.

The regional trains to and from Central Hesse run via Hanau to Frankfurt Central Station or end in Hanau, Frankfurt-Süd or Offenbach.

In addition, Deutsche Bahn uses trains that run every hour on weekdays from Friedberg via Friedrichsdorf to Frankfurt and back.

ICE and IC trains will be diverted via Kassel, Fulda and Darmstadt during the route closure.

Some trains cannot stop at Frankfurt Central Station as usual.

During the last full closure, the replacement concept of the railway caused criticism.

One learned from this, said the group representative of Deutsche Bahn for Hesse, Klaus Vornhusen.

Frankfurt Central Station can still be reached from central Hesse in all construction phases without having to change trains, and suggestions are to be made for better signage for replacement buses.

The four-track expansion of the previously only two-track, 13-kilometer railway line between Frankfurt and Bad Vilbel is nearing completion.

From December of this year, the S-Bahn trains will be running on their own tracks and thus separately from the long-distance and regional trains in a reliable 15-minute cycle.

Regional and long-distance traffic will then also benefit from the additional capacity on the route.

According to Deutsche Bahn, the travel time from Bad Vilbel to Frankfurt Central Station will be reduced by up to five minutes from the current around 25 minutes after the expansion.

All connection options and the location of the replacement bus stops can be found in the electronic information media of the railways and the RMV.

A detailed overview of the timetable changes and replacement services during the Easter holidays should also be available on the website from mid-February.