Friedberg station works drag on with no reopening date
Thursday 12th November 2026 on 14:31 in
Bavaria
Construction work at Friedberg railway station near Augsburg continues with no date set for trains to return, leaving commuters reliant on buses, BR reports.
No trains have run through the station for months. Buses are replacing services between Augsburg-Hochzoll and Dasing, and passengers travelling between Augsburg and Ingolstadt face significantly longer journeys. Residents are also living with ongoing construction work.
Friedberg Mayor Roland Eichmann, of the Social Democratic Party, said none of the commitments made so far had been met. The project was originally due to be completed by the end of 2025, but the railway has postponed that target several times and is no longer giving a completion date. Eichmann also criticised the company for often informing residents and others affected only days before changes, calling its communication “a complete disaster”.
Deutsche Bahn said unexpected water sources were found in the slope during construction. Markus Baumann, a project manager at DB InfraGO, said the water had softened the ground, making it impossible to build a safe railway line. The company said its experts had not identified the problem during preliminary investigations. “Obviously, there was a planning error,” Baumann said.
Work is now taking place in two shifts, from 7am until 4am, with staff transferred from other construction sites to speed up progress. Baumann said the company wanted to finish as quickly as possible and was aware of the added disruption for residents. Deutsche Bahn said it would announce a new completion date only when it was confident it could meet it.
Commuters say the diversions and transfers are adding substantial time to their journeys. One passenger said her trips now sometimes take four times as long as usual. A commuter from Neuburg said he needed about an hour more than before and had left home at 5am, arriving at his destination at 8.20am. Others said they hoped the disruption would lead to a reliable service once work was complete, while describing the current situation as stressful.
When trains will once again run normally through Friedberg remains unclear.