Overview
- After two weeks of a full shutdown, S‑Bahn tracks were reopened for four weeks, enabling limited S‑Bahn and Regional services between Düsseldorf, Wuppertal and Hagen on a reduced construction timetable.
- Passengers traveling toward Solingen or Cologne must still use replacement buses, with journey times longer than normal and fewer trains than usual.
- VRR reports recurring structural problems in the bus operation, citing a steady 3.5–5% cancellation rate, drivers taking wrong routes or stuck at bottlenecks, unclear passenger information and undersized vehicles on RE13.
- Deutsche Bahn has about 200 buses in service and acknowledges some timetables are not workable, with a review underway to add running time where needed.
- The corridor remains under a five‑month Generalsanierung through July 10, with bus operators calling the situation basically stable despite incidents such as Carnival vandalism that sidelined ten buses.