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Duisburg railway junction: In local transport, many trains in the Ruhr area were completely canceled for two weeks, while long-distance trains were rerouted over a wide area
Photo: Christoph Reichwein / dpa
After two weeks of construction, the railway reopened an important route between the western Ruhr area and the Rhineland on Monday morning. The construction work at Duisburg and Oberhausen main stations and at Düsseldorf airport station, among others, was successful, said a railway spokeswoman. For thousands of rail commuters in the region, the opening of the route will end a period of rail replacement services between Essen, Oberhausen, Duisburg and, in some cases, to Düsseldorf.
There were also massive restrictions on long-distance transport: According to Deutsche Bahn, almost no long-distance trains stopped in Duisburg, Oberhausen, Mülheim and Düsseldorf Airport during the closure. The construction work also had an impact on ICE connections in Cologne, Düsseldorf main station, Essen and Dortmund.
During the construction work, a total of five bridges were replaced in Duisburg and Oberhausen, among others. There was also work on switches, a noise barrier and a track at the airport station. The company announced that the closure during the Easter holidays was necessary in order to push ahead with numerous construction projects at the same time.
alw/dpa