Baden-Württemberg Long-distance traffic in northern Germany restricted until Sunday
Due to the severe onset of winter, rail traffic on several important long-distance routes in northern Germany is expected to remain suspended until Sunday. Among those affected are the east-west connection Berlin-Hannover-Ruhr area and the important north-south route from Hamburg via Hanover to Frankfurt, as a railroad spokeswoman told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
10.01.2026, 21:23
SDA
However, travelers will be able to use the connection between Hamburg and Frankfurt via Bremen and Cologne. "Trains to Hamburg via Fulda and Kassel terminate in Frankfurt," the company's website stated. The railroad also advised: "Please check whether you can postpone your journey." Connections between Hanover and Amsterdam and between Hamburg and Copenhagen were also suspended.
Regional services should slowly resume on individual routes on Saturday. However, like the buses in many places, many regional trains were also temporarily at a standstill.
Accidents in the north and east
As a result of winter storm "Elli", northern Germany in particular had to contend with snow drifts. There were many accidents at the beginning of the weekend, also in the east. In the south, on the other hand, things remained calmer, but that's where the depression was supposed to move to: Instead of the north, it should snow in the center and south - especially in the Black Forest and Allgäu. According to the German Weather Service (DWD), 20 to 30 centimetres of fresh snow are possible there by the second half of next night, and even up to 50 centimetres in the high areas of the Black Forest.
Winter sports enthusiasts can look forward to this. In Hesse, for example, the spokesperson for the Willingen ski resort said: "The conditions are really fantastic at the moment. It's also really busy."
What happens next
An end to the wintry conditions is not yet in sight - at most a brief respite before the next possible storm situation.
On Sunday, it should be clear to cloudy and often sunny and dry, especially in the northeast and west. DWD meteorologist Marcel Schmidt even expects a "picture-perfect winter day. With intermittent sunshine, a winter walk through the freshly snow-covered landscape will be worthwhile."
After that, however, it could become very slippery: "A warm front will reach western Germany on Monday night, with temperatures below freezing and snowfall at best at first," explains DWD meteorologist Thore Hansen. The snow will quickly turn to rain, which will freeze on the cold ground and lead to black ice. "This sets up the next storm situation after a short break. On Monday, the freezing rain will spread to large parts of the country."
In the south-western half of the country, there could be a high risk of black ice as a result, the weather service writes. In the north-eastern half of the country, it may be dry at first, but there could also be snow or freezing rain.
Winter chaos not only in Germany
Winter is also causing exceptional circumstances abroad: In France, hundreds of thousands of households were without electricity and a nuclear power plant was shut down as a precaution. In Russia, there were numerous flight cancellations, especially in Moscow. In the UK, a man in his 50s was found dead in the far south-west - a tree had crashed into his caravan.
