Renovation of the Berlin-Hannover railway line: massive problems for commuters

Saskia Hieb's commute begins at Spandau train station, one of the westernmost corners of Berlin. This is conveniently located for the commuter who goes to work in Wolfsburg. There she works for the Volkswagen administration.

The train normally takes one hour for the Berlin-Wolfsburg route. Total travel time there and back is 2 hours per day. Not a little, but still completely within limits for many employees who commute longer distances.

Since the railway completely renovated the Berlin-Lehrte route, which runs via Hanover and Wolfsburg, everything has changed. The journey now takes 3.5 hours - each way. Theoretically, 7 hours there and back. Completely unthinkable for commuter Saskia Hieb.

Luckily, she can do her office job from home on many days. Commuting would simply be impossible in the long term. But if she has to be present in the office, she always travels to Wolfsburg the evening before the working day.

Worried about the connections

"I'm taking the last train. That's about a quarter to nine in the evening," says Hieb. Instead of a relaxed direct journey, the commute has become a longer journey - in several stages. “From here towards Berlin Central Station, then take the ICE to Braunschweig,” she goes through the stations. "And then take the regional train to Wolfsburg-Fallersleben."

In order to meet the travel time of three and a half hours, she has to reach all connections. “Then everything really has to work without delays or cancellations. Otherwise I’ll be stranded,” says Hieb.

Almost two thirds of all trains are delayed

But: it very often doesn't work on the alternative route. This is shown by a data analysis by the company Railwise, the results of which were published exclusively by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg this week. Accordingly, the proportion of unpunctual trains on the route in the direction of Hanover is 48 percent. Almost every second train was delayed.

A train is considered late if it arrives more than 6 minutes after the arrival time stated in the timetable. 1,611 ICE trips and 119 from the provider Flixtrain between October 2nd and 23rd were examined.

The real horror figures come from the impact on the direction of Berlin: 75 percent of all journeys were delayed, according to the Railwise analysis. When added together in both directions, this means that 62 percent of all trains were unpunctual. Deutsche Bahn has not yet responded to a request from rbb about the reasons for the delay. According to Deutsche Bahn, the average punctuality rate for all long-distance transport was 56.2 percent last month.

Impact on regional traffic

The Railwise study also shows: The delays on the apparently heavily used alternative route between Berlin and Braunschweig also have negative effects on regional traffic. The route closure and alternative traffic put a strain on an entire region. Passengers in Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Berlin are affected.

An example: the Berlin-Rathenow route, also a classic commuter route. Normally rail customers take the regional express RE4: 40 minutes, one journey. Now they have to take another route via Nauen, which is off the route. The journey takes 40 minutes longer - at least on paper.

Because the data analysis shows: these trains are also unpunctual. Delays are particularly frequent during peak hours, early in the direction of Berlin and in the evening in the direction of Nauen. For example, between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., more than one in three trains that leave the capital towards Nauen arrive late.

Hope for 2027

Commuter Saskia Hieb is watching closely how the major construction site between Berlin and Lehrte is developing and whether the punctuality of alternative traffic is improving. “The hope is that the situation will ease somewhat from January onwards,” she says. “But the information situation seems to change every week.”

After all, the home office is only an emergency solution. Hieb fears that remote working will probably not be possible as often as it is now in the coming year.

With information from Martin Küper, Gina La Mela and Jacqueline Piwon, rbb.