Northern Germany experienced significant disruptions to its rail services, with multiple incidents including embankment fires, an overhead line fault, and the disposal of an unexploded World War II bomb near Osnabrück's main station causing widespread delays and cancellations. The Deutsche Bahn spokesperson confirmed that long-distance passenger services were particularly affected, with some routes remaining closed into the evening.
Among the routes impacted were the ICE trains between Mannheim, Frankfurt, Braunschweig, and Berlin, which faced diversions and delays of approximately 70 minutes. Similarly, services between Hannover and Berlin were diverted, with delays extending up to 90 minutes. The embankment fires, reported in areas including Hamburg, Lower Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt, alongside the bomb disposal operation, contributed to the travel chaos on key routes connecting Berlin with the Ruhr area/Hannover and Hamburg.
The disruptions also affected notable individuals, such as climate activist Luisa Neubauer, who was traveling from Berlin to Hamburg to visit her grandmother and participate in a discussion with CDU MP Philipp Amthor on the societal divisions caused by the climate crisis. Neubauer shared her frustration on Instagram, standing before a delayed ICE train that was supposed to take her to Hamburg, highlighting the irony of the situation.
In Osnabrück, the sudden need to defuse the unexploded bomb led to the evacuation of approximately 20,000 people from the surrounding area, a process that lasted several hours. This incident marks the second time in two weeks that Osnabrück has faced such an evacuation, underscoring the ongoing challenges posed by wartime relics in Germany. The Deutsche Bahn advised passengers to check their travel connections before departure, as services were expected to remain disrupted until the end of the day.
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