Lübeck main station to close all weekend for signal-box renewal, tens of thousands forced onto replacement buses
Lübeck's main station will stay closed all weekend for signal-box renewal, forcing tens of thousands of passengers onto replacement buses during Lübeck Pride, a football derby and the end of school holidays.
Signal-box renewal shuts down Lübeck Hbf
Lübeck's main railway station will be fully closed from Friday 14 August at 22:00 until Monday 17 August at 04:00 while the Deutsche Bahn replaces an outdated signal box. The power supply for the Lübeck and Bad Schwartau area is being exchanged because the existing installation is obsolete and electricity demand will rise further once the Fehmarnbelt crossing, currently under construction, comes into operation. Both Deutsche Bahn long-distance trains and erixx Holstein regional services will be suspended for the entire period.
Roughly 30,000 commuters pass through Lübeck Hauptbahnhof on a typical day. All of them will need to switch to replacement buses, which will run in half-hourly and hourly intervals toward Kiel, Lüneburg, Neustadt, Scharbeutz, Travemünde, Bad Oldesloe, Preetz and Schönberg. The buses will depart from the Linden Arcaden stop on both sides of the street, directly beside the station forecourt. The regular replacement stop at the ZOB will serve only for disembarking during the closure.
- Lübeck Hbf fully closed; all DB and erixx trains suspended, replacement buses begin
- Lübeck Pride parade in the city centre (about 10,000 participants expected); football derby Phönix Lübeck vs VfB Lübeck in the evening
- Station scheduled to reopen and train service to resume
Affected lines and replacement arrangements
According to the Nahverkehrsgesellschaft NAH.SH, five regional lines are affected: RE 8 and RE 80 (Hamburg to Lübeck to Travemünde), RE 83 (Lüneburg to Lübeck to Kiel), RB 84 (Lübeck to Kiel), RB 85 (Lübeck to Neustadt) and RE 4 (Lübeck to Schönberg to Bad Kleinen). All long-distance trains calling at Lübeck will also be cancelled. In Bad Oldesloe, buses heading toward Lübeck, Scharbeutz and Travemünde will depart from the Johannes-Ströh-Straße on the east side of the station rather than the usual special stop. The X85 bus line to Fehmarn will continue to use its regular stop on the station forecourt.
erixx Holstein has warned that bicycles cannot be carried on the replacement buses because of limited capacity. Passengers are being urged to check their connections before travelling and to allow extra time.
Three events converge on one weekend
The closure coincides with Lübeck Pride, whose Saturday parade through the city centre is expected to draw about 10,000 participants. On Saturday evening, the Regionalliga city derby between Phönix Lübeck and VfB Lübeck will take place at the Lohmühle stadium. The German Weather Service forecasts temperatures above 30 degrees, adding to the pressure on already crowded replacement buses.
Heavy motorway traffic expected
The weekend also marks the end of school holidays in Schleswig-Holstein, as well as in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. ADAC Schleswig-Holstein spokesperson Rainer Pregla said the overlap of returning holidaymakers and ongoing summer excursion traffic will strain key north-south routes in both directions.
Auf der A7 bekommen wir am Wochenende praktisch Verkehr aus allen Richtungen. Gerade dort, wo sich die verschiedenen Reisewellen überlagern, reichen schon kleinere Störungen aus, um längere Staus entstehen zu lassen.
The A7 (Flensburg to Hamburg to Hannover) is expected to be the most affected corridor. A further focus of congestion is the A1, where holiday return traffic will compound the disruption already caused by the station closure and the weekend's events in Lübeck.
