Railway chaos in the southern Harz: heavy rain causes massive delays!

Railway chaos in the southern Harz: heavy rain causes massive delays!

The current weather situation is causing significant disruption to rail traffic in parts of Germany. This is currently particularly visible in the municipality of Südharz, where heavy rain and storms have caused the tracks to be completely closed. As the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reports, passengers had to wait for heavily delayed trains between Halle and Kassel today, August 28, 2025. Mud and rubble had blocked the tracks at Roßla train station, which led to massive restrictions on passenger traffic.

Rainfall that night caused a railway crossing to flood, which further aggravated the situation. Abellio trains were the only ones affected by the delays, including on the connection between Sangerhausen and Heiligenstadt (RB57) and on the RE8 and RE9 lines. In order to offer travelers an alternative, emergency buses were deployed between Sangerhausen and Nordhausen from 8:30 a.m. The clean-up work on the track has been underway since the morning, supported by the fire department and employees of the South Harz Wastewater Association.

The effects of extreme weather

The current weather conditions are not an isolated case. The extreme weather not only affected this section of the railway, but also other areas of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt. Fallen trees and flooded streets were the result, with the fire brigade occasionally being deployed. According to the German Weather Service (DWD), there are warnings of strong thunderstorms and further heavy rain. Dangers range from lightning strikes to falling trees and aquaplaning. The low pressure area of ​​the former hurricane “Erin”, which is currently moving over Germany, is responsible for these weather extremes.

A look at the entire situation in the railway network shows that such storms are increasingly becoming the norm. WDR reports that Deutsche Bahn's infrastructure is “very susceptible to failure” and has already suffered from record temperatures and severe storms. This resulted in significant damage to cables, noise barriers and overhead lines due to embankment fires and other environmental influences. Interestingly, twice as many systems failed as a result of normal days, which shows how stressful the weather is for the rail network.

Preparing for future extreme weather scenarios

In order to meet the challenges of climate change, Deutsche Bahn has been developing prevention measures against extreme weather since the 2010s. Current regulations stipulate that a vegetation-free zone of at least six meters must be maintained along the routes in order to counteract the risk of falling trees. At the same time, there are also considerations about using AI to improve forecasts for ground and route conditions and thus increase operational safety.

Railway researcher Birgit Milius points out that strong storms are not only to be expected in the autumn and winter months. Extremely high temperatures and drought have already caused branches to break in the past. A current example is an incident near Cologne-Mülheim, in which a broken branch that was previously considered inconspicuous endangered the rail network. It is therefore important that Deutsche Bahn continually revises and adapts its strategies in order not to endanger the transport transition.