Chaos on detour: Berlin-Hannover railway line severely delays commuters

Saskia Hieb, a commuter from Spandau, normally takes one hour to travel to her workplace in Wolfsburg, where she works for the administration of Volkswagen. Due to the construction work, the journey time has almost doubled to 3.5 hours per direction.

“I take the last train, around a quarter to nine in the evening,” reports Hieb, as she is now forced to travel to Wolfsburg the night before in order to fulfill her work commitments. Her commute has become a complex journey in several stages: “From here towards Berlin Main Station, then by ICE to Braunschweig, and then by regional train to Wolfsburg-Fallersleben.” A missed connection can lead to considerable problems.

A recent evaluation by the company Railwise, exclusively published by rbb, confirms the serious situation. According to this, 48 percent of the trains heading towards Hannover and an alarming 75 percent heading towards Berlin are delayed. Overall, this means that around 62 percent of all trains on the affected route are running late. The definition of a delay is more than six minutes.

The impact is not limited to long-distance traffic. Regional traffic is also suffering from the detour, especially on routes such as Berlin-Rathenow, where journey times are extended by up to 40 minutes. During peak hours, for example between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., over a third of the trains heading towards Nauen are delayed.

The Deutsche Bahn has so far not issued a statement on the causes of these delays. While the punctuality rate in the entire long-distance traffic was 56.2 percent last month, it falls significantly on the affected route.

Saskia Hieb hopes for an improvement in the situation from January, but is aware that home office is currently only a temporary solution. The situation is unpredictable and constantly changing.