Cologne Central Station has been closed to long-distance and regional traffic since Friday evening – now the replacement schedule will have to prove itself in rush hour traffic for the first time. Many passengers will enter Cologne tend to use the S-Bahn and U-Bahn to reach their destination.
During the ten-day closure, many ICE trains stopped right outside the Ehrenfeld or Messe/Deutz train stations, rather than at the main train station. Even in regional transport, some lines such as RE 1 (Aachen-Hamm) or RE 5 (Wesel-Koblenz) mostly pass through the city and therefore do not stop in Leverkusen or Düsseldorf-Benrath, for example.
In total, around a dozen regional transport routes were diverted. The best way to view online information is to see how your connection functions despite construction work, suggests Deutsche Bahn.
According to the railway, the closure initially began over the weekend without major problems. It was said that the travelers had prepared well.
Construction work did not go according to plan
Long-distance and regional line closures at Köln Central Station are in effect until the morning of November 24. Construction work that was actually planned at the time of closure could not be carried out according to plan. At the last moment, the railway discovered an error in the new signal box software and therefore postponed its operation until the following spring.
Then long-distance and regional lines at Köln Central Station had to be closed a second time – but not as long as this time.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251117-930-301906/1
