Overview
- Late Tuesday night, Germany's rail operator ordered all trains to stop at stations after a nationwide failure of the GSM‑R railway radio system that handles driver‑to‑control communications.
- Technicians restored the system after roughly two to two-and-a-half hours and trains resumed service step by step, though some schedules and local services remained disrupted the following day.
- DB InfraGO says the outage appears linked to a scheduled swap of a technical component and company engineers are analysing exactly how the maintenance action cut nationwide communications.
- Passengers were left stranded with long lines at information desks and inconsistent staff briefings; Deutsche Bahn offered taxi and hotel vouchers and placed trains at stations for people to sit in where possible.
- Freight operators reported about half of cargo trains delayed and a backlog that could take days to clear, renewing criticism of the rail network's reliance on the ageing 2G‑based GSM‑R standard and calls to speed migration to newer systems.