9-euro chaos at Pentecost: many trains and stations hopelessly overcrowded Regional

► Saxony: According to a dpa reporter, the regional train from Leipzig to Weimar was completely overcrowded on Saturday morning. People would have crowded with luggage and bicycles in the corridors and door areas. Travelers who wanted to get on were sent back to the tracks. The railway initially did not comment specifically on request.

► Lower Saxony: Deutsche Bahn reported an “extraordinarily high number of passengers” on Twitter. A ride cannot be guaranteed, and it is not possible to take bicycles with you, it said. The railway company Metronom also announced on Twitter that bicycles cannot be taken on the trains until Whit Monday – due to the high number of passengers.

According to the tweet, in addition to regional train routes and S-Bahn traffic around Hanover, the lines of the regional express towards the coast were particularly affected, i.e. the trains between Norddeich and Hanover (RE 1), Bremerhaven and Hanover (RE 8) and Bremerhaven and Osnabrueck (RE 9). The extent to which the rush is due to the 9-euro ticket in local transport, which has been valid for a few days, initially remained open.

► Thuringia: With only moderately warm weather, excursion traffic on Saturday in Thuringia developed differently. By noon there was little traffic on the roads in the Free State, the police said. In contrast, Deutsche Bahn reported high passenger numbers.

▶︎ In Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein Deutsche Bahn reported an exceptionally high utilization of several trains on Twitter on Friday. “Carriage cannot be guaranteed. Bicycles cannot be taken along,” it said. Trains towards the North Sea coast were particularly affected.

Numerous tourists and day visitors arrived on Sylt by train on Pentecost Saturday – including many punks. The trains are packed, and the car trains are fully booked. Instead of fine ladies with Louis Vuitton bags strolling through Westerland and elegant gentlemen roaring across the island in their Mercedes convertibles, punks in ragged jeans and leather jackets are now lounging around on the popular promenades. Bawling, they shake beer cans and grain bottles around and have fun throwing surprise eggs. Nevertheless, a police spokesman emphasized that the situation on Sylt was calm. There were no major operations during the night either. A group of 50 to 80 punks who had been on the island for a few days had “been a little loud”, but that wasn’t anything special either.

–

► NRW: The same applies here: Deutsche Bahn has once again pointed out that it cannot be guaranteed that bicycles will be taken on regional transport on the Pentecost weekend. Due to the increased number of passengers, there could be an exceptionally high load on the regional train lines, Deutsche Bahn NRW wrote on Twitter on Saturday. The carriage of bicycles cannot be guaranteed in some cases. Long delays are possible.

–

–

► Hamburg: On Saturday, commuters who did not want to travel in regional trains were particularly affected here: A spokesman for the General German Automobile Club (ADAC) said at noon that there was a lot going on on the northbound motorways in particular. It was sometimes backed up by up to ten kilometers, for example on the Autobahn 7 between the Walsrode and Soltau-Süd triangle. On the A1 between the Maschener Kreuz and Stillhorn, it was backed up for seven kilometers. Again and again there are also disturbances or minor traffic jams. Of course, the railways were also fully utilized, but so far no significant impairments have been reported.

► Hesse: Frankfurt Airport is also bursting at the seams: Airport operator Fraport reported a “busy day” with 175,000 passengers on Saturday: “That’s a lot.” There were “waiting times at peak times,” reported a spokesman. Fraport had cut around 4,000 jobs during the Corona crisis – now there is a lack of staff. As expected, the regions were also heavily utilized.

It seems clear: The chaos has only just begun – and all of Germany is affected!

“Especially around the long weekends, we expect high demand on June 3rd and 6th as well as on June 19th,” a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn told BILD.

–