Overview
- The closure, which begins Friday evening, will suspend rail traffic between Duisburg and Essen and between Duisburg and Oberhausen until 30 October 2026 to allow major construction at Kreuz Kaiserberg.
- Both regional services and much of the long‑distance network are affected; several RE lines and S‑Bahn 1 are out of service and many Fernverkehr trains are rerouted or canceled.
- Long‑distance trains from Cologne and Düsseldorf to Hannover and Berlin will be diverted via Wuppertal and some connections will not run, leaving Duisburg and Oberhausen largely without intercity stops.
- Deutsche Bahn is running replacement buses for commuter links between Duisburg, Mülheim and Essen and recommends alternative routes such as S6 while urging passengers to check journey planners before travel.
- The work combines highway reconstruction over eight rail tracks with RRX expansion, and the interruption is likely to cause knock‑on delays and altered connections to Düsseldorf, Cologne and destinations in southern and eastern Germany.