Berlin/Schwerin (dpa/mv) – After two months of significant train cancellations, normal traffic will resume on the RB17 Wismar-Schwerin-Ludwigslust line from Saturday. DB Regio announced this on Thursday. The hourly cycle on the route should then be guaranteed again. This Thursday and Friday, express buses ran between Ludwigslust and Schwerin for the nine connections that were canceled every day, said a railway spokeswoman on request. So far, such a replacement offer has not been possible due to insufficient capacity from bus providers.
However, the replacement buses cannot be found in the Deutsche Bahn timetable information on the Internet. In the short time it was not possible to enter them into the system, said the spokeswoman.
The railway spokeswoman said there would also be stabilization on the RE4 and RE7 lines with additional employees. “From September 19th, a full hourly service between Ueckermünde and Pasewalk will be offered again.” In addition, due to the construction work on the RE4, a construction timetable applies. The journeys of the RE7 between Greifswald and Stralsund – two to four trains per direction and day, depending on the timetable day – would probably be offered again from October 4th. Until then, the trains on the RE3 or RE10 line could be used as a replacement, which together offered an hourly service between Stralsund and Greifswald. DB Regio emphasized that it currently provides 98 percent of its transport services in MV.
Since July, the railways had canceled local trains on individual routes in the north-east, sometimes to a considerable extent, citing a high level of sick leave. Most recently, the outages were extended on a weekly basis. The passenger association Pro Bahn had criticized the deletions and spoke of a disadvantage for rural areas. For example, while the S-Bahn in Rostock, which is also operated by DB Regio, maintains a 7.5-minute cycle during peak times, trains in rural areas are canceled for a longer period of time. The people there are more affected when the train suddenly only runs every two hours than when the S-Bahn in Rostock only runs every 10 minutes.
