Accident at Ceska Trebova station and Snowstorm in Central Europe – Update No. 1

7.12.2023

Dear Customers,

We would like to inform you about the development of the situation on the railways in Central Europe.

ZSR announced the 1st level of winter safety measures yesterday. Due to the snow, rail traffic around Bratislava is limited and all METRANS connections from/to Dunajska Streda transiting through Slovakia will be significantly delayed for this reason.

Flurries of snow also affected the railways in Hungary. In addition, the traction line was damaged on the Budapest – Szob section, traffic in this area is paralysed and some METRANS trains between Ceska Trebova, Dunajska Streda, Budapest, and from/to Serbia, Turkey are stopped. According to current reports, the repair should be carried out during this afternoon.

The removal of the consequences of the collision of trains on the entrance track to Ceska Trebova station on 03/12/2023 will take place in a matter of weeks, maybe even months. All METRANS trains have already left the terminal, but we will still struggle with the complications associated with more complex handling.

The terminal in Munich was completely inaccessible for three days due to the snow calamity on the railway and did not process a single train during that time. DB Netz removed the obstacles yesterday and today the first trains can run from/to the terminal. Subsequent delays are unfortunately unavoidable.

The services of the northern ports have come to a complete halt in several places due to extreme snowfall in the past few days, and we are still catching up with the delays from this period. Thanks to the predicted warming, the outlook is positive and we expect traffic to slowly return to normal.

Burchardkai terminal in Hamburg has reported a 24-hour delay in handling trains since yesterday morning, which is still ongoing – see attached report.

The German trade union of locomotive drivers GDL announced a strike from 07/12/2023 6 p.m. until 08/12/2023 10 p.m. This strike mainly concerns passenger transport. However, impacts on freight transport and thus METRANS services in Germany cannot be ruled out.

We try to deal with all the complications and deliver your containers to their destinations. We will continue to inform you about the situation.

Please contact our Customer Service with specific questions about your shipments.

METRANS Team