Bahn closes ICE route Berlin-Hamburg for nine months – this is how commuters react

Potsdam. Shortly after seven o’clock, the IC 2070 towards Hamburg pulls into Berlin Central Station. There are many six-person cabins, where three people sit opposite each other. Christina Martens is in one of these cabins.

She doesn’t want to be called by her real name, because: Martens could quit soon. Your employer doesn’t know anything about it yet. “That will be almost impossible,” she says about the upcoming complete closure of the ICE route between Berlin and Hamburg.

The route with the only Brandenburg ICE stop in Wittenberge (Prignitz) will be completely closed for nine months from August 2025 for general renovation. However, there will be restrictions for passengers from next month, when the Karstädt-Wittenberge route will be completely closed from mid-August to mid-December.

Travelers and especially commuters are facing enormous challenges, even quitting a job is becoming an option for some.

Commuter between Berlin and Hamburg: 70 minutes more travel time

Two years ago, Christina Martens and her husband moved from Hamburg to a community east of Berlin. Since then, she has been traveling to the Hamburg office for a day or two every two weeks.

To do this, she starts shortly after six o’clock, travels to Berlin Central Station and from there takes the Deutsche Bahn to the Hanseatic city. She arrives at a quarter past nine.

Christina Martens works in the pharmaceutical industry. Door to door it takes just over three hours. If she has to make the detour via Hannover next year, the journey will take at least 70 minutes longer.

“I have two small children at home. If the employer says I have to come to the office every two weeks, I don’t think that’s acceptable. “The detour just makes the commute too long,” she says.

ICE route Berlin – Hamburg: detour via Hannover

Simon Roloff works at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. Part of his family lives in Berlin. That is why the media scientist drives the route between Berlin and Büchen every two to three weeks.

“I’m glad it’s happening,” says the 44-year-old about the upcoming general renovation. If there are no more delays and fewer disruptions afterwards, he will gladly make the detour via Hannover.

“But compared to others, I drive very rarely. I will endure it,” he adds. According to him, the previous approach of the railway, where only one section was renovated at a time, did not work well.

Deutsche Bahn: general renovation instead of partial renovation

With this, Simon Roloff addresses the concept of partial renovation: the route normally remains single-track. Only a certain area is renovated. Now Deutsche Bahn is changing its strategy.

During the basic renovation, the route will be completely closed. Tracks, switches, overhead lines, signal box technology and station buildings will be replaced. On the so-called Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim This is only being practiced for the first time. It is the dress rehearsal for 40 subsequent routes, including the one between Berlin and Hamburg.

After that, Deutsche Bahn aims to have no construction work for a number of years and to reduce disruptions by at least 80 percent. Trains would run more reliably. Train stations would become more attractive and accessible.

Complete closure Berlin – Hamburg: Commuters must arrive earlier

Claudia Limmer also thinks it is right that the route is being renewed. But the complete closure is “extremely bad” for them. The professor of obstetrics teaches in Hamburg and lives in Berlin. She spends two to five days a week in the Hanseatic city.

On Monday morning she takes the train. She has to report to her work in Hamburg by ten o’clock at the latest. Due to the longer travel times, she now has to make a new appointment. The professor is already looking for solutions for next year.

“I will probably have to drive on Sunday or try to avoid Monday somehow. In some cases this might be possible. But of course I can’t change the timetable,” says the professor.

Construction sites at Deutsche Bahn: replacement bus services

If you are travelling from Berlin to Hamburg, you should allow approximately 45 minutes extra time from mid-August to mid-December. Trains are diverted via Stendal and Uelzen.

Commuters from Wittenberge are hit harder. From there, no trains run to Hamburg. In a first step, Deutsche Bahn is renewing 74 kilometers of track, switches and culverts between Wittenberge and Ludwigslust.

An IC bus is intended to replace the trains. From Wittenberge it takes about two and a half hours to Hamburg. The journey with the ICE normally takes about an hour.

Is the IC bus an alternative for commuters?

The long bus ride is not an alternative for Kati Grünwald. She will switch to the car. Since 2015, she has been commuting between Wittenberge and Hamburg. She takes the train three times a week. She works two days at the home office.

About the renovation work this year, she says briefly and concisely: “You have to get through it. We are used to sadness here on the route.” She can move a large part of the work to the home office. Still, she has to go to the Hanseatic city once or twice a week.

Kati Grünwald hopes that there will be more stops in Wittenberge after the construction work. Regarding Deutsche Bahn’s changed strategy, she says: ‘Maybe it will be better in the end when everything is finished.’

General renovation: a challenge for commuters

Christina Martens also thinks that Deutsche Bahn’s new restructuring strategy is basically right: “Of course it’s great if you have the reliability and the connection is reliable. But still, nine months is a long time,” she says. It would be difficult for her. That’s why she sees only two alternatives.

She wants to try to regulate her commute so that she has to go to Hamburg once a month, instead of every two weeks. “But if that doesn’t work, I might have to change course,” she says.

This article first appeared in the “Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung”.