Kleine Anfrage der Grünen: Viele Zugausfälle nach Öffnung Bahnstrecke Berlin-Hamburg

Following the reopening of the Berlin-Hamburg rail line in June 2023, the Green Party questioned the high number of train delays. The federal government acknowledged in a response that punctuality on the route had yet to reach the target level. According to the "Tagesschau", between June 14 and June 30, 133 out of 1,272 trains were delayed by at least 91 minutes, while only 105 were delayed by less than a minute.

Notably, 28 trains were canceled on June 27 and 19 on June 28, with only four days in June having no cancellations at all. Hottest days and extreme weather conditions played a role. Between January 1 and July 26, the situation improved compared to the initial phase: out of 1,878 trains, 86 experienced delays of 91 minutes or more.

The highest cancellation rate occurred on July 1, when 16 out of 52 long-distance trains failed to depart. Ten days saw no cancellations at all. The federal government argued that staged ramp-up of installations was common practice for complex commissioning. Despite rigorous inspections of technical installations, certain faults or hidden defects often only became apparent in operational conditions.

Hottest days and local weather events also contributed. The rail line between Berlin and Hamburg underwent a renovation from August 2025 to June 2026. The plan was to complete the renovation by April 30, 2026, and lift the full closure. The railway company cited the frost at the beginning of the year as the reason for the one-and-a-half-month delay. A partial reopening was granted by the railway company in mid-May.