2023-12-02 09:00:58
Due to the onset of winter, train traffic in southern Germany is severely affected. There are delays and cancellations, said a spokeswoman for Deutsche Bahn on Saturday morning. The main train station in Munich cannot be reached. In the greater area of Bavaria’s capital, among other places, long-distance traffic is currently suspended. The connections to Salzburg, Innsbruck, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Lindau were canceled. Restrictions can be expected throughout Saturday.
Flight operations at Munich Airport were expected to be suspended until 12 p.m. due to heavy snowfall. As a spokesman announced, the winter service is in action to enable safe take-off and landing again. So far, around 320 of 760 planned flights have been canceled for today. Passengers are advised to check the status of their flight before traveling to the airport.
The police in Munich advised against driving. Unnecessary trips should be “urgently avoided,” said a spokesman on Saturday morning. Cars should be equipped with winter tires and drivers should pay attention to the appropriate speed. Given the heavy snowfall, the traffic situation is “extremely challenging” and clearing services are on duty. Pedestrians should also pay attention to falling objects such as branches or snow from rooftops.
Snow and ice caused traffic chaos in large parts of Bavaria. Flight operations at Munich Airport and train services to and from the main train station in the Bavarian capital were temporarily suspended. The S-Bahn and some regional trains also stopped running. Local public transport was stopped in Augsburg. There were numerous accidents on Bavaria’s roads.
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On Friday, more than 150 take-offs and landings at Munich Airport were canceled due to the weather. The reasons for this were snowfall and low temperatures at the airport, said a spokesman.
“We recommend postponing trips to and from Munich,” said the railway spokeswoman. Weather-related train cancellations and delays could also occur in other parts of southern Germany, it said. All passengers who wanted to postpone their trip planned in southern Germany due to the onset of winter could use their ticket at a later date. The train connection has been lifted. Deutsche Bahn asked people to find out more on the bahn.de website or by calling travel information before starting their journey.
In Ulm and Munich, passengers had to spend the night on trains. Subways, buses and trams initially stopped running in Munich. There were numerous accidents on the roads in southern Bavaria – according to the police, most of them resulted in property damage. The police in Upper Bavaria South urged the population to stay at home. The emergency services are in constant use.
However, a 54-year-old driver died in an accident on a snowy road in Baden-Württemberg. According to police, the man skidded and, after turning 180 degrees, came into the oncoming lane in Emmingen-Liptingen. There he collided with a pickup truck on Friday evening. The driver suffered serious injuries as a result of the impact and died at the scene of the accident. The pickup truck left the road and ended up in a ditch. The 67-year-old driver of the van was uninjured.
Between Munich-Pasing and Fürstenfeldbruck, between Tutzing (Starnberg district) and Weilheim in Upper Bavaria and between Neukirchen and Vilseck (both Amberg-Sulzbach district), trains had to stop at the stations because of fallen trees. Rail replacement services cannot be offered due to the weather-related situation on the roads, it said. Delays and train cancellations must be expected.
As a dpa reporter reported, a train coming from the Baden-Württemberg state capital Stuttgart had to be converted into an overnight train at Ulm main station in the morning. Deutsche Bahn also provided a train for stranded passengers at Munich Central Station. According to a spokeswoman for Deutsche Bahn (DB), it was initially unclear how many trains had to cancel their journeys for the time being.
The heavy snowfall has also thrown the railways in Switzerland out of sync: several routes of the Räthische Bahn (RhB) in the canton of Graubünden are interrupted or only accessible to a limited extent. According to RhB, replacement transport was only possible to a very limited extent. The Arosa line from Chur to Arosa was interrupted. The line is without power and replacement transport is not possible. The duration of the interruption is indefinite.
There were further restrictions and cancellations in the Upper Engadine, among others. According to RhB, the only trains running there were between St. Moritz and Samedan. The route from Davos to Filisur is also interrupted. A replacement transport is not possible.
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