Overview

• Deutsche Bahn will close Köln Hauptbahnhof’s regional and long‑distance tracks from November 14 at 21:00 to November 24 at 05:00, with only S‑Bahn services operating during most of the period.
• S‑Bahn service will be suspended for about eight hours overnight on November 19–20, and lines S12 and S19 will not run overnight on November 18–19.
• Many ICE services will bypass the main station with substitute stops at Köln‑Ehrenfeld or Köln Messe/Deutz, some long‑distance and regional trains will be canceled, and RB 25 is among the few regional exceptions.
• DB plans only limited night replacement buses, with the Kölner Verkehrs‑Betriebe and S‑Bahn maintaining access and extra staff assisting at Köln Hbf, Köln Messe/Deutz, Köln West, and Köln Süd.
• The works are part of a roughly €360 million investment; controllers are training on simulators, more than 217 old signals will be removed and 53 new ones installed, and the new control center is slated to go live around November 24.