{"id":266182,"date":"2025-08-13T17:49:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T07:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=65041"},"modified":"2025-08-13T17:49:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T07:49:51","slug":"berlin-hamburg-closure-diversion-routes-add-more-problems-than-they-solve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=266182","title":{"rendered":"Berlin\u2013Hamburg closure: diversion routes add more problems than they solve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The renovation of the Berlin-Hamburg main line started at the beginning of August and will keep the section closed for the next nine months, significantly affecting rail freight services. Less than two weeks into the project, controversies are already arising. For example, there are construction works also along the available alternative routes, leading to dozens of trains being slowed down or even cancelled.<\/strong><br \/>\n<span id=\"more-65041\"><\/span>The issue thus concerns the coordination of construction sites, as highlighted by DB Watch, a project aimed at monitoring all the renovation projects carried out by DB InfraGO in Germany. The German infrastructure manager responded to this by saying that \u201cheadquarters insisted on implementing all closures and refused to stagger them\u201d despite many warnings from industry associations.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/infrastructure\/2025\/07\/31\/nine-months-of-diversions-hamburg-berlin-line-closes-tomorrow\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DB282461-128x128.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/infrastructure\/2025\/07\/31\/nine-months-of-diversions-hamburg-berlin-line-closes-tomorrow\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">Nine months of diversions: Hamburg-Berlin line closes tomorrow<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<h2>Night time closures<\/h2>\n<p>More specifically, there will be interruptions of traffic at night time (traditionally rush hour for freight trains) along the Bad Bevensen\u2013Bienenb\u00fcttel and Frellstadt\u2013K\u00f6nigslutter\u2013Schandelah sections. Because of this, there have been freight trains covering 50 kilometres in four hours \u2013 not the most competitive transit time to use an euphemism. \u201cAs long as construction work is not better coordinated, any diversion concept that works on paper will remain a risky illusion in practice\u201d, DB Watch stressed.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"max-width: 100%; margin: 20px auto; border-radius: 6px; overflow: hidden; box-shadow: 0 2px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"fluid alignnone\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto; display: block;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/In-red-the-main-line-under-renovarion.-In-black-the-diversion-routes.-In-dark-red-the-section-of-the-diversion-routes-which-will-also-have-construction-works.png\" alt=\"In red, the main line under renovation. In black, the diversion routes. In dark red, the section of the diversion routes that will also have construction works. Image: \u00a9 DB Watch\" width=\"1208\" height=\"679\" \/><figcaption style=\"padding: 10px 15px; font-size: 14px; background: #f8f8f8; text-align: left; color: #555;\">In red, the main line under renovation. In black, the diversion routes. In dark red, the section of the diversion routes that will also have construction works. Image: \u00a9 DB Watch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The renovation of the Berlin-Hamburg main line started at the beginning of August and will keep the section closed for the next nine months, significantly\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17608,6974,17744,101,1096,343,47],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-266182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-berlin-hamburg","category-db-infrago","category-db-watch","category-deutsche-bahn","category-die-guterbahnen","category-infrastructure","category-rail-news","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=266182"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266352,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266182\/revisions\/266352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=266182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=266182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=266182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}