After the snow chaos: traffic situation in southern Germany slowly returning to normal
The Bayerische Regionalbahn announced that train services would remain suspended until at least Sunday afternoon. A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bahn said that the routes would be flown by helicopter. There is still only a "very compressed service". The trains are already 100 percent full.
Deutsche Bahn recommended that travel to and from Munich should be postponed. For trips that were planned between Saturday and Monday in the affected areas, the train binding of the tickets was canceled. The tickets could be used at a later date, the railroad explained, and advised that travel should not resume until Tuesday if possible. There will still be train cancellations and delays on Monday.
Munich Airport resumed flight operations on Sunday morning. However, "there will still be restrictions on air traffic", it announced on its website. Passengers who wanted to fly on Sunday should therefore check the status of their flight with their airline in good time before traveling to the airport.
Munich's public transport company announced that streetcar services were still suspended. Buses would be running again - but there would still be major irregularities due to ice and snow on the roads. S-Bahn services on the outskirts of the city were completely suspended on Sunday until further notice.
The city of Munich announced that Hellabrunn Zoo would remain closed on Sunday due to the extreme weather conditions. The Bavarian palaces of Linderhof and Lustheim in Schleißheim and the island of Herrenchiemsee could not be visited. The Bavarian Palace Administration also closed Nymphenburg Palace Park in Munich due to the high risk of snowfall. The English Garden was also at risk of snow breakage, it warned, and advised against visiting the park.
At Lake Constance, the district fire department announced that firefighters had been called out to hundreds of incidents due to the snowfall. In most cases, fallen trees or dangerously hanging branches had to be cleared. In some cases, roads through wooded areas were closed.
However, no serious traffic accidents were reported from Lake Constance. Traffic accidents due to icy roads were reported from Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony on Sunday, but no one was reportedly seriously injured.
Heavy snowfall had already paralyzed parts of southern Germany on Saturday. The German Weather Service did not forecast any further heavy snowfall in the region during the day on Sunday and Monday. In the Alps, however, there was a threat of snow drifts and a considerable risk of avalanches in some places due to gusts of wind and storms, it said.
On Sunday, there should still be snow showers on the Baltic Sea and from Sunday evening on the Lower Rhine. In the night to Monday, snowfall was expected to spread from North Rhine-Westphalia to the North Sea, with snow and later rain coming from the west over the course of Monday. The weather service expected some areas to become slippery.
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Source: www.stern.de
