Deutsche Bahn restores nationwide rail services after major outage
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10 days · 5 summary articles
Deutsche Bahn on Wednesday morning said its nationwide rail network was gradually returning to normal after a two-and-a-half-hour nationwide outage of its GSM-R communications system that stranded thousands of passengers late on Tuesday.
Services began to resume shortly after midnight, Deutsche Bahn confirmed in a statement issued at 02:00 local time on Wednesday, 24 June 2026 . The company said the disruption, which halted all long-distance, regional and S-Bahn trains across Germany, was caused by a technical malfunction in the GSM-R radio system that controls train control and signalling. The fault was identified and corrected in the early hours of Wednesday, allowing operations to restart.
Passengers faced severe delays and cancellations across the country. In Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Hamburg, long lines formed at station information desks as travellers sought alternative routes or overnight accommodation . Deutsche Bahn warned that normal service would not be fully restored until at least 06:00 on Wednesday morning, with widespread knock-on effects expected throughout the day .
The outage affected every federal state, paralysing both passenger and freight services. In North Rhine-Westphalia, one of Germany’s busiest rail regions, regional services were reported to be “largely normal” by Wednesday morning, though long-distance trains remained disrupted . Similar reports of partial recovery emerged from Saxony and Bavaria, where S-Bahn networks in Leipzig and Nuremberg began limited operations after being completely shut down for more than two hours .
Deutsche Bahn has not yet disclosed the technical cause of the malfunction, though company spokesman Thomas Ehrlich told *Handelsblatt* that an internal investigation was underway . The incident follows repeated criticism of Deutsche Bahn’s ageing infrastructure and digital systems, which have faced multiple large-scale disruptions in recent years.
Travellers and commuters are advised to check updated schedules online or via the DB Navigator app before heading to stations. Deutsche Bahn has also set up temporary information points at major hubs to assist stranded passengers with rebooking and refunds.
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