Due to a storm, long-distance rail traffic in central Germany is affected. “Individual routes are closed and there are diversions with delays,” said Deutsche Bahn. Those affected by the disruption include Hesse, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.
The ICE trains between Hanau and Gießen would be rerouted, as would the ICE between Göttingen and Kassel, the railway said. ICE trains between Koblenz and Bonn are also being rerouted, meaning they will be delayed by around 15 minutes. The Bonn, Remagen and Andernach stops are no longer available. There is an alternative stop in Bonn-Beuel. ICE trains between Hamm and Münster are being diverted and will be delayed by around 15 minutes. The Hamm (W) stop is no longer necessary.
Temporarily no traffic in Frankfurt
ICE trains between Nuremberg and Erfurt were being rerouted and delayed by around 75 minutes, it said. They do not stop in Erlangen, the Bamberg stop can be omitted. According to Deutsche Bahn, ICE trains between Kassel, Göttingen and Hanover cannot be rerouted and are waiting for the closures. For the ICE, which was supposed to start in Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe at 8:56 p.m. and arrive in Hanover Hbf at 10:31 p.m., the train app showed this around midnight: Start in Kassel at 12:48 a.m., arrival in Hanover at 2:06 a.m.
As the DB Regio Baden-Württemberg announced, there was a tree on the route between Stuttgart-Vaihingen and Böblingen. The route was closed, there were delays and partial cancellations. Storm damage in the Würzburg main station area was displayed in the train app.
A dpa reporter reported that, according to a train attendant, there was temporarily no train running at Frankfurt Central Station. A look at the arrival board at Frankfurt Central Station around 10 p.m. showed major delays: trains from Hamburg were supposed to arrive between 200 and 290 minutes later than planned, a train from Dortmund 110 minutes later, one from Vienna 45 minutes. A train from Dillenburg was canceled.
The dpa reporter was traveling in the ICE 1171 Lüneburg-Basel, which was in Hanau for more than two hours. The train attendant therefore released non-alcoholic drinks for everyone.
Fallen tree damages bus in Cologne
During the storm, a Cologne Transport Company (KVB) bus was also damaged by a fallen tree. The driver was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, the fire department said. Several fallen trees and broken branches caused traffic disruptions in Cologne. A total of 130 danger reports were processed due to the thunderstorm with heavy rain and wind, according to the fire department. With the help of technical equipment, branches were chopped up and removed from the danger area.
Clothes horse hangs 25 meters high in tree
There was something strange to see in Ludwigshafen, where a clothes horse was blown high up: the fire department discovered it in a tree 25 meters above the ground, as they announced. There were around 360 emergency calls and 80 missions as a result of the storm. There were no injuries, the city in Rhineland-Palatinate said.
