Overview
- The 65-kilometer corridor is closed from December 26 at 21:00 to January 2 with no trains running to prepare for the larger rebuild.
- From February 6 to July 10 the line will undergo full renewal of tracks, switches and bridges, plus new noise barriers and station upgrades, at an estimated cost of about €800 million.
- Long-distance trains are diverted through Düsseldorf and Duisburg, Wuppertal and Solingen lose ICE stops, and only a few services call at Hagen, extending trips by roughly 20 to 40 minutes.
- Regional traffic between Cologne and Wuppertal is suspended, with some services between Düsseldorf, Wuppertal and Hagen using S-Bahn tracks; affected lines include RE4, RE7, RE13, RE49, RB48, S7, S8, S9 and S28.
- Replacement buses run as all-stop and express options, pushing journeys such as Wuppertal–Cologne to about 1.5 hours instead of 34 minutes, with the operator directing travelers to its online planner.