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Commuter vaccination: S-Bahn cuts from December 2025 endanger mobility!
From December 2025 there will be cuts in the Anhalt-Bitterfeld S-Bahn network, affecting commuters and important connections.
Commuter vaccination: S-Bahn cuts from December 2025 endanger mobility!
From December 2025, commuters in Saxony-Anhalt will face major changes in the S-Bahn network. The necessary adjustments are a reaction to increased costs and a lack of funds in local transport. Commuters from the south of Saxony-Anhalt in particular have to be prepared for considerable restrictions People's voice reported.
The most affected lines concern the area around Halle, Bitterfeld and Leipzig/Halle Airport. The Halle – Leipzig connection will remain in place, but not all lines and journeys will be continued. From December onwards, the S2 will only run from Bitterfeld via Delitzsch and the Leipzig Trade Fair to Leipzig-Connewitz. For commuters from Bitterfeld, this means longer transfer times. In Borna, the 30-minute evening service will also be reduced to an hourly service.
Changed timing and timetables
The S3 will remain intact, but will be extended to Geithain, which will lead to changed travel times for passengers from Halle. The Halle-Leipzig/Halle Airport connection remains with the lines S5 and S5X, but there may be changes to the departure times here too. The new timetables have already led to protests in Markkleeberg, Borna and the southern Leipzig area. A petition entitled “No clear-cutting in the S-Bahn network in Markkleeberg and Borna” has been started and has already collected thousands of signatures.
According to critics, the accessibility of important stops such as Markkleeberg, Großstädteln and Gaschwitz is inadequately guaranteed. In the future, only one S-Bahn line will stop in Markkleeberg, whereas three lines were previously available.
Causes and solutions
The reductions are not isolated but reflect a nationwide problem. In several federal states, including Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, cuts in local public transport are also being examined due to financial bottlenecks. In Schleswig-Holstein, among other things, amplifier trains and connections during off-peak times are no longer available. State Transport Minister Claus Ruhe Madsen said that although these cancellations were painful, they only affected a small percentage of all connections South German newspaper reported.
The increase in costs, particularly for personnel and materials, has further exacerbated the situation. The cost per train kilometer has increased by over 250 percent from 2014 to today, while revenue from ticket sales has fallen sharply, especially since the introduction of the Deutschland Ticket. This means that more than 6,300 passengers in Markkleeberg are affected by the new timetables. The initiators of the petition are calling for the planned cuts to be reversed and the timing in the southern Leipzig area to be adjusted.
Modern Siemens Mireo vehicles are scheduled to come into use from December 2026, and full implementation of the new MDSB2025plus network is also scheduled for this date. In the long term, depending on the financial conditions, there could be an expansion of the offering. However, these uncertainties do not make the future of public transport any less precarious.