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Extreme cold wreaks havoc on suburban trains in Munich and Berlin

The Local Germany
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Extreme cold wreaks havoc on suburban trains in Munich and Berlin
A broken down S-Bahn train in Munich on Tuesday. Photo: DPA

Munich’s Ostbahnof was completely closed down on Wednesday morning after freezing temperatures made regular service impossible. In Berlin the situation was only slightly better.

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The closure of Ostbahnhof, one of the main stations in the Bavarian capital, meant that all S-Bahn lines and regional trains travelling in and out of the city’s east were affected, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports.

Deutsche Bahn said that the extremely cold temperatures had caused a problem with the switches at the busy station meaning the rails could not be properly connected.

The situation was fixed later on Wednesday morning, and the S2, S3, S6 and S8 lines had all resumed regular service.

This was the third day of rail disruptions in Munich. On Tuesday the airport was unreachable for more than an hour and on Monday passengers were left sitting in trains for hours waiting for the line to be repaired.

DB has named various causes for the chaos, including defective overhead wiring and broken down trains.

In Berlin the S-Bahn was also hit by major problems on Wednesday morning, as defective switches caused delays on the Ringbahn.

Berlin daily Tagesspiegel reports that the cold weather was behind the switch problems. The key S41 line was only running every ten minutes on Wednesday morning. The S3, S5, S7, S75 and S9 were all also running irregularly.

Just like in Munich, this was the third day of delays on the suburban rail lines.

The German Weather Service has said that the weather will begin to improve on Thursday.

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