Rail traffic: General renovation of the Berlin-Hamburg railway line started

The railway gave the official starting signal for the general renovation of the Hamburg-Berlin railway line. The CEO of the rail infrastructure company Infrago, Philipp Nagl, named the project at an event in Ludwigslust (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) a “real effort”.

In the next nine months, 165 kilometers of tracks and almost 250 course are to be renewed. 28 train stations along the 278 kilometer corridor are modernized according to the railway. Six signal boxes are to be rebuilt and another 19 renewed. The construction work should cost 2.2 billion euros. According to the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport, Ulrich Lange, up to 2.5 billion euros are invested.

Deriration and replacement buses

Long -distance transport will be redirected via Stendal and Uelzen by the end of April 2026. The trains then take an average of 45 minutes longer. ICE and IC trains also only drive once an hour instead of every 30 minutes as before. Freight transport is also widely redirected.

There are many connections in regional transport or only drive on sections. Affected commuters can switch to replacement traffic by bus. The replacement traffic starts early on Friday morning, even if regional traffic is still traveling as usual into the evening.