Berlin: A major IT outage brought Germany’s rail network to a standstill, forcing national railway operator Deutsche Bahn to suspend train services across the country for more than two and a half hours before operations gradually resumed.
The outage was caused by a malfunction in the Global System for Mobile Communications for Railways (GSM-R), a critical digital communication network used by train drivers and traffic control centres. As a safety measure, all trains were instructed to remain at stations while technicians worked to identify and resolve the issue.
Deutsche Bahn announced the disruption at around 10:30 p.m. local time, confirming that the failure had affected internal railway communication systems nationwide. The operator later said its technical teams successfully identified and fixed the problem, allowing train services to restart gradually.
Deutsche Bahn remarked that, “Our IT experts worked tirelessly to resolve the issue – successfully. The disruption was quickly fixed, and service is now gradually resuming.” The outage triggered widespread delays and cancellations across Germany’s long-distance, regional and suburban rail services. Passengers were advised to seek alternative transportation as uncertainty over the duration of the disruption caused significant inconvenience.
Deutsche Bahn Chief Executive Evelyn Palla said efforts were focused on moving trains safely into stations so passengers could disembark. The company did not immediately provide figures on the number of affected trains or travellers.
To assist stranded passengers, Deutsche Bahn said it would provide taxi and hotel vouchers where necessary and arrange replacement transport services whenever possible. The disruption also impacted S-Bahn commuter networks connecting suburbs with city centres. However, S-Bahn Berlin later confirmed that the GSM-R outage had been resolved and services were resuming, while warning passengers to expect residual delays and some train cancellations.
The incident highlights the railway sector’s growing dependence on digital communication infrastructure, with even temporary disruptions capable of causing nationwide transport paralysis.
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