Nobody was injured in the accident, but the collision has caused major damage along the Uelzen to Hanover rail line, with service disruption continuing into Thursday morning.
According to rail company Metronum, the impact of the crash caused the overhead line to break in the Suderburg area, just south of Uelzen. This has forced the closure of the line between Uelzen and Hanover.
Passengers had already been facing disruption on the Hamburg-Uelzen and Hanover-Göttingen lines since Tuesday due to a lightning strike, Metronom spokesman Björn Tiedemann told DPA.
This means that there are now serious delays and problems for local and long-distance travellers in the north from Hamburg to Göttingen.
"Travellers should switch to alternative modes of transport," Tiedemann advised.
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Passengers are being asked to avoid the Hanover-Celle-Uelzen line entirely. Due to a shortage of available buses, there is only a skeletal replacement bus service available on the route.
Emergency services have been attempting to fix the issue for several hours, but an attempt to set up a new signal box has failed.
"The tree was lying on the tracks on the Uelzen-Hanover line and the train collided with it," Metronom told DPA. "We don't yet know whether the reason for the fallen tree was the storm. This is currently being investigated."
According to the latest information from Deutsche Bahn, the accident is having a major impact on long-distance services between major cities in Germany:
- ICE trains between Hamburg and Berlin are cancelled
- ICE trains between Hamburg - Hanover - Kassel - Fulda - Würzburg - Nuremberg and Munich are cancelled between Hamburg and Hanover
- ICE/IC trains between Stralsund/Hamburg - Lüneburg - Hanover - Kassel - Marburg - Giessen and Frankfurt(M) are cancelled between Hamburg and Frankfurt(M)
- ICE trains between Hamburg - Hanover - Kassel - Fulda - Frankfurt(M) and Darmstadt/Mannheim will be diverted and delayed by around 20 minutes
According to DB, the problems are likely to continue into Thursday afternoon. Passengers should check the Deutsche Bahn website for the latest information before travelling.
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