In the morning, the railway had completely stopped long-distance traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia because of the autumn storm “Hendrik”. The first trains are now running again, but important routes are not yet passable.
Deutsche Bahn temporarily suspended long-distance traffic on Thursday morning due to storm damage throughout North Rhine-Westphalia. This was announced by a DB spokesman in Düsseldorf. Consequences for the entire federal territory can be expected. On the Cologne-Düsseldorf line, one of the main lines is still not passable, and the clean-up work was still ongoing due to storm damage.
The ICE route to Wuppertal is also not yet passable, said a spokesman. How long the work would drag on was initially unclear. In addition, the storm low continues to move across Germany. One tries to lead long-distance trains past NRW on certain routes, added the rail spokesman. Regional traffic is still going “as far as possible”.
DB asks travelers to find out about their connection before starting their journey. All passengers who wanted to postpone their trip planned for Thursday due to the hurricane low can now flexibly use their long-distance ticket already booked up to and including seven days after the end of the disruption.
Storm “Hendrik”: freight train hit Ast in the night
On Thursday night, a freight train collided with a branch in Bad Godesberg, so long-distance traffic between Cologne and Koblenz was initially impaired. As a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn announced, the branch fell onto the track on the left bank of the Rhine due to the storm.
The damage was repaired shortly before seven o’clock, and the long-distance trains were then able to drive on the left bank of the Rhine again – until long-distance traffic was finally stopped completely.
The German Weather Service (DWD) also had nationwide coverage for North Rhine-Westphalia issue a storm warning. The railway had put repair teams and emergency vehicles on standby in advance to remove storm damage to overhead lines and obstacles in the track bed such as fallen trees or parts of roofs, tarpaulins and rubbish.
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