Punctuality of S-Bahn and regional trains in North Rhine-Westphalia fell further in the first half of 2026

The punctuality of S-Bahn and regional trains in North Rhine-Westphalia continued to deteriorate in the first half of the year. This emerges from preliminary figures from the Competence Center Integral Timetable NRW, which are available to the German Press Agency.

Around 30 percent of all trains ran behind schedule between January and June. For comparison: In the first half of 2025, around 25 percent of S-Bahn and regional trains were delayed, but that was also a record at the time. In 2020, only 13.2 percent of trains were late. A train in North Rhine-Westphalia is considered late if it runs at least four minutes behind schedule.

The industry cites the rail network, which is in need of renovation in many places, as the main reason for the problems. Another problem is the high utilization of many routes. As a result, delays in long-distance trains immediately cause problems for local trains that travel on the same route. Regional trains usually have to let delayed ICE trains pass.

Delays, especially on busy lines

The problems have been particularly serious for years on the regional express lines. According to preliminary figures, more than one in three trains (36 percent) ran behind schedule in the first half of 2026. In the same period last year it was around 33 percent. The RE trains often travel long distances through several disruption-prone junctions on the Rhine and Ruhr - and are therefore particularly often late.

The most unpunctual RE line in the first half of the year was the Dortmund-Siegerland-Express (RE34) from Dortmund through the Sauerland to Siegen. Around 61 percent of the trains there were unable to keep to their timetable. There were still major problems with the Rhein-Haard-Express (RE2) from Düsseldorf via Essen and Münster to Osnabrück. Around 55 percent of the trains there were late.

On several other lines with high passenger volumes, not even every second train was on time: on lines RE5 (Koblenz-Cologne-Wesel), RE11 (Düsseldorf-Hamm-Kassel) and RE99 (Siegen-Frankfurt), among others, less than 50 percent of the trains ran at the times scheduled in the timetable.

Things looked somewhat better on the S-Bahn: from January to June, 24 percent of the trains were late. A year ago it was around 20 percent for the S-Bahn. The most punctual line in North Rhine-Westphalia was the S4 between Dortmund and Unna - only around two percent of the trains there were late.

Lots of construction sites: travelers have to switch to buses more often

These delay statistics do not take into account the significantly longer journey times that rail travelers have to plan for due to the many construction sites on the rail network. In the first half of the year, only replacement buses and no trains ran on several important routes - partly because of the general renovation of the Cologne-Wuppertal-Hagen route.

Around 17 percent of all train journeys that were actually planned were completely canceled in the first half of the year. Construction sites were the reason for train cancellations in 12 percent of all planned journeys.

However, almost five percent of the trains were also canceled at short notice. The most common cases in these cases were technical problems with the rail network or a train, as the figures show. Canceled trains are not included in the punctuality statistics.