Rail traffic between Berlin and Hamburg has been severely restricted since Friday morning. Because of a fire on the tracks in downtown Hamburg, only every second ICE can travel between the two cities. The Eurocity from Prague already ends in Berlin. This reduces the space available between the two cities to less than half – on a busy Friday of all days.
The few remaining ICE trains are overcrowded. For the ICE 1600, which departed late at 2 p.m., the Bahn app warned: “Exceptionally high utilization”. According to the railway, the disruption will last into the night. The canceled trains can be seen in the app.
It was not a politically motivated attack that damaged the cables, but a fire on the embankment of the tracks. The fire burned between Hamburg Altona and Hamburg Central Station – because of the chronic congestion in Hamburg Central Station, trains cannot turn there and return to Berlin. This is only possible in Altona. The trains are simply canceled.
https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/behinderungen-im-bahnverkehr-wegen-kabelbrands-jeder-zweite-ice-zwischen-berlin-und-hamburg-faellt-aus/28338084.htmlV2