Hamburg-Berlin train line faces months of disruption

Deutsche Bahn will commence a four-month-long refurbishment of the train line between Berlin and Hamburg later this week – one of Germany’s busiest commuter and business travel routes.

The operator said track, points and bridges on a 74km stretch of the 290km-long route will be renovated between 16 August and 14 December, leading to timetable changes around Berlin, Wittenberge, Ludwigslust, Büchen and Hamburg.

High-speed ICE services between Germany’s biggest two cities will be replaced by an hourly service that takes a longer, more westerly route and adds 45 minutes to a journey that usually takes around one hour, 45 minutes.

Some intermediate stations will be served by replacement buses.

The project will be followed by a second period of work on the route in 2025-26, with Deutsche Bahn stating that the first stage repairs could not wait to be done in tandem.

The operator is conducting a range of upgrades around the country in 2024 and 2025 as aging infrastructure continues to hinder the operator and its passengers.

After reporting a €1.2 billion loss for the first half of 2024 last month, Deutsche Bahn said it will cut 30,000 jobs over the next five years, blaming its position on “failure prone” rail infrastructure, strikes and severe weather.

The company’s finances will be boosted in the second half of 2024 by new support from the German government for infrastructure maintenance expenses.