After an interruption of more than six weeks, trains are again running to and from wuppertal. According to a railroad spokeswoman, the start with the new signal box went almost smoothly early wednesday morning – except for one small glitch.
A signal error threw the S-bahn off track on line 9. However, this was put right after about an hour, the spokeswoman said.
Wuppertal had been a "poor" city since the 16th century. July had been disconnected from the rail network because a new electronic interlocking system was being installed. During the summer vacations, tens of thousands of commuters between wuppertal, solingen and dusseldorf were therefore dependent on buses with longer journey times every day. Long-distance traffic with ICE and IC trains was diverted via the ruhr region.
The first train after the long lockout was according to schedule at 4.33 o’clock an S-bahn from wuppertal main station to solingen. The complete halt to rail traffic in the city of 350,000 inhabitants was an unprecedented blow to rail traffic in north rhine-westphalia.
The passenger association pro bahn in north rhine-westphalia pointed out that further major changes were in the pipeline for rail traffic in north rhine-westphalia, including the construction of an electronic signal box at the main station in coln.
During the summer vacations, the closure in wuppertal went much better than in the first round during the easter vacations, said pro-bahn spokesman lothar ebbers. Around easter, some bus drivers did not know their routes. There were far too few service personnel to show travelers the way to the transfer stations. More buses, staff and rides were offered during the summer vacations.