Germany’s rail network was brought to a nationwide standstill between late Tuesday 23 June and the early hours of Wednesday 24 June 2026 because of a fault in the GSM-R digital radio communications system, the tool used to manage safety-critical communications between train drivers and traffic control centres. The shutdown, which lasted around 90 minutes according to Deutsche Bahn, affected both the state-owned operator’s trains and those run by private companies using the same network infrastructure, with consequences for long-distance passenger services, regional trains, S-Bahn lines and freight transport.
The disruption began at around 22.30 on Tuesday, when Deutsche Bahn and several regional operators announced the suspension of services across the country. For safety reasons, trains already in service were held at stations or allowed to continue only as far as the next stop, while no new departures took place. Deutsche Bahn chief executive Evelyn Palla told Bild that the company had managed to stabilise the situation by activating an emergency system and that, after 90 minutes of disruption, all trains were back in operation.
Deutsche Bahn said the technical problem had been resolved shortly before 01.00, about two and a half hours after the first report, announcing a “gradual” resumption of services. The company nevertheless warned that major delays, partial suspensions and residual cancellations were still to be expected for both passenger and freight services, as the network progressively returned to its normal timetable sequence. The first trains resumed service between 00.30 and 01.00, with the recovery strengthening over the following hours on Wednesday morning.
Some reconstructions point to a faulty software update as the main hypothesis, suggesting it may have compromised the operation of the radio system. In its official statements, however, Deutsche Bahn limited itself to confirming the IT origin of the disruption, referring the matter to further investigations without validating the software update theory. At present, there are no concrete indications of deliberate sabotage, although the broader context of Germany’s critical infrastructure becoming increasingly exposed to external interference, already highlighted by Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in relation to the Baltic, has fuelled questions that remain unconfirmed.
