Dear Customers,

During the past weekend, extraordinary incidents occurred that further slowed the already complicated operations on the German railway network. An IT system outage in Hamburg halted all arriving and departing trains for seven hours early on Sunday morning. This further aggravated the situation on the already heavily congested DB InfraGO infrastructure. In Bremerhaven, one of the wagons derailed during shunting operations. Besides causing significant delays, resources had to be rapidly rescheduled in order to maximize their utilization.
 
From 17 May 2026, 23:00 until 21 May 2026, 05:00, the railway line to/from Wilhelmshaven between Oldenburg and Delmenhorst is completely closed for bridge repair works. Due to the rerouting via Rheine and Osnabrück, we are required to shorten train sets and reduce train capacity.
 
Yesterday, the Elbe Valley route was also affected by the regular Monday closure.
 
The situation on the German railway network therefore remains highly complicated, particularly around Hanover, where the capacity of diversion routes is under extreme pressure due to ongoing track maintenance activities. Trains are being held back on the instructions of infrastructure managers, resulting in delays and necessary rescheduling. The circulation of train sets and locomotives has been disrupted.
 
In addition to the above-mentioned obstacles, we are expecting a significant operational restriction at the end of this week and the beginning of next week due to Pentecost holidays. Northern German ports will not handle cargo on 24–25 May 2026 due to public holidays. HPA has taken advantage of this period to carry out reconstruction works. In Hamburg, a complete closure will be in effect from Saturday, 23 May 2026, 07:00 until Monday, 25 May 2026, 19:00, preventing any train movements to/from the port.
 
Hamburg: HPA controls train entry. Delays of up to several days.
 
Bremerhaven: BremenPorts controls train entry. Import delays up to 3 days, export delays up to 0.5 day.

Wilhelmshaven: Import delays of approximately 1 day.

• DE National: Inland terminals DUSS Leipzig and DUSS Kornwestheim are overloaded. It is necessary to ensure the fastest possible pickup of import containers. At present, terminals accept export containers only for the currently scheduled train; earlier delivery is not possible.

Rotterdam / Duisburg: Imports from Duisburg delayed by up to 2 days; all others delayed by several hours.

For any questions regarding specific shipments, please contact our customer service team.

METRANS Team