In the Port of Hamburg, operations were suspended as of the early morning on 9 January. METRANS says that the situation is similar in Gdańsk, Rotterdam and Wilhelmshaven. “The current outlook is very negative, and it is expected that there will be no improvement before the first half of next week. Individual infrastructure providers are constantly bringing more bad news.”

Deutsche Bahn states that weather-related cancellations and delays are taking place across northern Germany. Some lines may unfortunately have to be suspended entirely, according to the rail holding. In parts of Poland, the situation seems to be similar, with trains occasionally running into problems and causing delays.

Hindrances continue in the Netherlands despite thawing

Dutch infrastructure manager ProRail says that a malfunction at the important Kijfhoek rail yard, near Rotterdam, is continuing to disrupt rail freight services. Despite the thawing in the Rotterdam area, companies still cannot operate on a normal schedule.

“We’re experiencing significant disruption due to the rail restrictions”, DB Cargo Netherlands spokesperson Jelle Rebbers told ProRail. “Many switches we need to reach customers are stuck. This means customers can’t be reached for extended periods. Factories can literally grind to a halt. The weather is thawing now, and more and more is becoming available.”

Rebbers says that DB Cargo is “significantly behind and will need to do a lot more work in the coming period to catch up. Moreover, a lot of snow is forecast for the coming days, so we’re not there yet.”

In other words, over the past 23 months, the line has been open only for 12 – it will be 14 out of 25 including the next two months of closure – with a massive negative impact for rail freight. Rail freight operator Onrail uses this line to connect Åndalsnes with Oslo. Already at the beginning of 2025, Onrail’s head Henning Aandal pointed out that the very existence of the sector is constantly threatened by the frequent disruptions along the Norwegian rail infrastructure.

More frequent and more powerful events

Climate change is causing extreme weather events to occur more often and with more intensity, not only in Norway. The main rail link between Italy and France, for example, was closed for 19 months between August 2024 and April 2025 due to a landslide, and then again for one week in July due to a mudslide.

Other than landslides, the European rail freight industry has been dealing with catastrophic floodings increasing in frequency. Over the past few years, heavy rains have often hindered services, especially in southern Europe. To tackle these problems, the International Union of Railways published new recommendations for infrastructure managers in Europe on how to deal with such phenomena.

“The tree was lying on the tracks on the Uelzen – Hannover route and the train collided with it. We do not yet know whether the storm was the reason for the tree falling down. This is currently being investigated”, a representative of a local passenger operator told German media.

Completely congested

The incidents are having a far-reaching impact on north German rail freight traffic. “Due to the ongoing closures on the corridor to and from the Port of Hamburg in Germany, there is basically no free detour route available at the moment. All lines in northern Germany are currently completely congested”, rail operator Metrans explains.

“Since the accident occurred in the central area of Hannover, not only domestic and international trains from and to the Port of Hamburg, but also from and to the Port of Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven as well as domestic east-western connections are restricted.”

Some of the regional lines, known as Cercanias, are also still closed, which also affects rail freight traffic. More specifically, there is no estimated reopening date for the C1, C2 and C3 lines of the Cercanias network. The C5 and C6 lines have now been reopened exclusively for rail freight or infrastructure maintenance trains, state-owned operator Renfe said. The port of Valencia is also implementing measures to “avoid logistical collapses”, including the prioritisation of transport of essential goods. Moreover, the connections between the port and Tarragona and Zaragoza are working.

Rail freight and climate change

Climate change is becoming a increasingly disturbing factor for the rail freight industry in Europe. Other than Spain, this past few months have seen heavy rains in Central and Eastern Europe, which left a significant mark in Austria. Moreover, Italy, Poland, Czechia and Romania all had to deal with such weather conditions over the past few weeks. During the summer it was the turn of Germany, where extreme weather affected logistics and transport services in the north.

Austria

The situation remains quite complicated for Austria as well. The Vienna-Salzburg line, for instance, remains unavailable due to a flooded tunnel in Atzenbrugg, where water levels reached one metre. “The task now is to restore the power supply, pump out the water and repair the damage”, Austrian rail freight company Rail Cargo Group underlined. The company pointed out that making predictions is quite difficult but that the situation is improving by the day.

Poland

The scenario seems a tad less catastrophic in Poland, where “the main lines are passable”, as infrastructure manager PKP PLK mentioned. However, circumstances are far from optimal along the Polish-Czech border crossings, with many of them remaining largely unavailable. Some passenger traffic was restored along the Zebrzydowice – Petrovice border crossing, but dozens of trains, both passenger and freight, keep getting cancelled or running on shortened routes.

Despite the impact on the infrastructure, Metrans underlined that none of their terminals have been hit by the floods. “today we can report that we have managed to find also alternatives for the routings and basically all the terminals are accessible by our rail system. We have managed to re-route trains within the network for the necessary time”, Kiss added.

Suspended services all over

The Czech operator ČD Cargo also mentioned that their services in Austria are significantly limited. “Trains do not run south from Vienna on the mountain line via Semmering. Due to the risk of flooding, traffic is also suspended on part of the backbone line between Vienna and Salzburg”, the company stated.

In addition, services from and to some destinations in the Moravian-Silesian and Olomuc regions, bordering with Poland, are suspended until further notice. Moreover, other companies have introduced bans, especially for cross-border traffic.

For example, Rail Cargo Hungaria cancelled all services through five border crossings between Hungary and Austria until today. Polish operator PKP Cargo also introduced a ban on transport on two border crossings between Czechia and Poland, in this case until 22 September.

“The extreme weather conditions in large parts of Europe are also having an extreme impact on freight transport”, Austrian rail operator ÖBB says in a statement. “Major routes and corridors are currently blocked. Unfortunately, forecasts indicate that the critical situation will continue for several more days.”

Stopped traffic

Due to the floodings, many trains have ground to a halt. ÖBB says that “border crossings have stopped working. In Austria, transit trains have had to be stopped to avoid overloading the rail network or because it is not possible to continue the journey.”

“Many lines, whether industrial sidings or main lines, are flooded. Before rail traffic can resume, the tracks must undergo a complete inspection and maintenance process for safety reasons, causing further delays”, the rail operator adds.

Extent of floods damage still unclear

A spokesperson from ÖBB tells RailFreight.com that the exact extent of the damage is still unknown. The water needs to recede before that state of infrastructure can be assessed. The financial consequences are also not yet clear: “We cannot yet accurately quantify the damage here. But it is immense!”

Reports coming in from all throughout the region suggest that the damage is indeed rather significant. The Czech town of Ostrava has been cut off from the rail network entirely, and it will likely take at least a week before traffic returns to normal.

In Romania, a 5-kilometre stretch of railway was damaged and partially washed away near Moldova. Traffic in various parts of the country was suspended or severely limited at 20 to 30 kilometres an hour. Lastly, a part of PKP Cargo’s locomotive fleet was flooded in the southern Polish region of Silesia. Freightliner Poland published a map indicating the many rail lines affected by the floods on LinkedIn.

“Railway traffic in the counties of southern and eastern Romania (Iași, Craiova and Galați) was affected by the heavy rains”, according to Simona Istrate, president of Romanian private rail association OPSFPR. “Traffic is carried out with speed restrictions of 20 – 30 km/hour. There are areas where traffic has been stopped”, she explains. According to her, the impact of the floodings reflect the underfunding of the Romanian rail network.

Meanwhile, ÖBB’s Rail Cargo Group also reports problems with its rail freight operations in Romania. “The ÖBB Rail Cargo Group is also affected by flooding in Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary, where entire corridors are no longer passable due to flooding and mudslides”, the company says.

The infrastructure manager limits its reporting to information about passenger traffic, but rail operator PKP Cargo makes clear that freight has also been affected. “Our fleet was also flooded, but our brave services are controlling the situation on site, showing responsibility and courage”, the company writes.

According to PKP Cargo, its southern Silesian plant is encountering restrictions in traffic. The company says that lines from Kamieniec Ząbkowicki are closed in the directions of Kędzierzyn Koźle, Kłodzko Główne and Jaworzyna due to flooding. In the direction of Wrocław, a track is planned to be closed.

Lastly, a number of trains and locomotives of the rail operator are flooded at Kłodzko Główne station, and PKP Cargo says that the engines of the locomotives will have to be dried out.