As part of Germany’s big rail overhaul, the Generalsanierung, the Hamburg – Berlin section is awaiting construction works between August 2025 and May 2026. While all types of trains will have to deal with disturbances, freight trains “will sometimes be diverted over longer distances”.
Freight trains and long-distance passenger trains will be diverted during the works. The diversion route in principle runs via Uelzen and Stendal. But between the two of them, it is freight that is taking the biggest hit with diversions over longer distances, based on a Deutsche Bahn (DB) report. It is unclear how long these longer diversions will be exactly.
“In order to improve the condition of the infrastructure on the busy Hamburg – Berlin route and to avoid recurring construction sites in the future, we have decided on a general renovation”, says Wolfgang Weinhold, Generalsanierung program manager at DB InfraGO. A total of 1,500 kilometers of track are to be completely renovated by 2027.
ETCS
As part of the works, DB will renew more than 180 kilometers of tracks and around 200 switches between Hamburg and Berlin. It will build six additional so-called transfer points, which “will create more stability and flexibility in operations” by letting faster passenger trains overtake slower freight trains, for instance. The highest-capacity routes will first be equipped with the new European train control system ETCS.
