Travel for Christmas
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Where you could be late for the festival by car, train or plane
Around Christmas, the streets and highways in Berlin and Brandenburg will be full again. According to ADAC, the main traffic jams are the Berliner Ring and the route between Hamburg and Berlin – especially from December 23rd.
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Taking the Christmas trip often means getting stuck in a traffic jam first. Therefore, drivers have to be prepared for more travel and traffic jams around the upcoming holidays than at Christmas 2020. At that time, a Germany-wide partial lockdown had severely restricted private travel, as the General German Automobile Club (ADAC) announced. According to the association, drivers should expect full roads on the Berliner Ring (A10) and on the route between Hamburg and Berlin (A24).
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Things really get going at the start of the holidays in Berlin
It was said that there would be a lot going on, especially on Thursday afternoon, December 23, when the Christmas holidays begin in Berlin. On Boxing Day, for example, the traffic club expects the streets to be full because most travelers return from family visits.
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Plan waiting times when crossing borders
Due to contact restrictions and restrictions for day trippers, for example in alpine ski areas, the ADAC takes this into account less travel than before the pandemic. A lack of planning security and the appeal of politicians to stay at home are likely to deter many people from traveling, the ADAC estimated.
However, if you travel abroad by car, you have to expect delays at the borders. Vaccination or recovery certificates and test certificates are usually checked on a random basis, which takes more time.
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These are the particularly busy routes in Christmas travel:
Greater Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich
A1 Cologne – Dortmund – Bremen – Hamburg
A2 Dortmund – Hanover – Braunschweig – Berlin
A3 Cologne – Frankfurt – Nuremberg – Passau
A4 Kirchheimer Dreieck – Erfurt – Dresden
A5 Hattenbacher Dreieck – Karlsruhe
A6 Heilbronn – Nuremberg
A7 Hamburg – Hanover and Würzburg – Füssen / Reutte
A8 Karlsruhe – Stuttgart – Munich – Salzburg
A9 Munich – Nuremberg
A10 Berliner Ring
A24 Hamburg – Berlin
A61 Mönchengladbach – Koblenz – Ludwigshafen
A81 Stuttgart – Singen
A93 Inntal triangle – Kufstein
A95 / B2 Munich – Garmisch-Partenkirchen
A99 bypass Munich
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Deutsche Bahn expects fuller trains
If you get stuck in a traffic jam, you should follow the usual rules: form an emergency lane even when traffic is slow; Do not drive on the hard shoulder, as this is reserved for breakdown and rescue vehicles (there is now a risk of fines of 200 to 320 euros); stay seated in the car; Do not hinder the police and rescue workers; Drive off with a sufficiently full tank or consider the limited range of electric vehicles in cold temperatures.
In the event of a full closure or a traffic jam of more than ten kilometers, it could be worthwhile to leave the autobahn, according to the ADAC. If you want to take the train instead of the car, you may have to expect fuller trains. On request, a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn said: “We do expect a higher demand around Christmas due to Christmas – on the other hand, many commuters and schoolchildren are no longer travelers due to the vacation and holiday season.”
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Flying from BER – some special rules
The airport company counts for the holidays slightly increasing number of passengers, i.e. until the Sunday after the New Year with around 640,000 guests, that corresponds to about half the figures from 2019, i.e. the last Christmas holidays before the corona pandemic. Especially the day after the New Year as the return day is considered to be busy.
Support teams are to be deployed at BER to support employees in the processes. At the start of the Christmas holidays in Brandenburg last weekend, there were no major problems. Although there was a heavy tourist traffic, everything is going smoothly and stable, said airport spokesman Jan Haack on Saturday. There was “orderly conditions” at the airport.
Because of the corona-related controls and the distance and hygiene rules, clearance and control take longer. The airport company asks you to check the regulations of the airlines and the countries of arrival before driving to the airport and to have all documents complete and ready to hand.
Passengers should at least two hours before departure be in the terminal. Medical mouth and nose protection is required everywhere. This applies in the restaurants, shops and lounges at BER 2G rule, then 3G rule on the plane, ie all travelers at home and abroad are obliged to carry proof that there is no infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (test, vaccination or recovery) at the time of departure. Children under the age of twelve are exempt from the obligation to provide evidence.
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Broadcast: Inforadio, December 21, 2021, 8:00 a.m.
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